The Second Chance
by Brandon Payne
Summary: What if Makoto . . . ? Well, you will just need to read and find out.
1. Prologue

_Makoto sits upon his couch in his apartment waiting for Sekai to make tea as she had so offered to do so. He thinks about what she might have gone through when she went to the doctor. He wonders if she had gotten the wrong idea about the whole thing as the doctor only wanted to check and see if she really is pregnant. Then there was also that look she had. A poker-faced expression with empty trance-like eyes._

_His thoughts are interrupted by his chiming cellphone, showing it to be a text message. Expecting it to be from Kotonoha, he gets up and goes into his bedroom as he takes it out. Something that he doesn't want Sekai to try and read over his shoulder if she happens to come out of his kitchen._

_Once there, he starts reading it. But it isn't from Kotonoha, but from. . . ._

"_Sekai?" He mused softly to himself with a hint of bewilderment._

_The message consists of only one word: sorry. It is then followed by one blank line after another, showing that the return button is being repeatedly pressed by Sekai. Makoto continues to watch as line after blank line is displayed. He keeps staring curiously at it, wondering if this is some sort of joke on Sekai's part. If it is, then it's an unusual one at that._

_For a moment, the blank lines stop. Yet only for that moment because another line comes up. This one also reading only one word: goodbye._

_Makoto puzzles over this. That is when he suddenly feels a presence behind him and turns to confront it. In an instance, Sekai's expressionless face looms before his own as she lunges at him. Her eyes now cold and dead._

_In the next instance, he feels a long and large cold blade pierce his jacket and shirt. To be immediately followed by skin and muscle as pain sears throughout his stomach. In that moment, shock overwhelms him and his life begins flashing before his eyes. He drops his cellphone._

_He next distinctively feels an intestine getting severed, causing even more pain so intense that he doubles over and clutches at his stomach with both hands, causing him to lose balance. He falls to the floor upon his front, feeling as if he is having a nightmare._

"_You're despicable!" Sekai cried._

_Makoto next feels the blade pierce his back, scraping a rib. Once again, horrific mind-numbing pain shoots through him, causing his eyes to water. The situation finally registers in his brain and intense horror fills him. On a reflex, he turns over onto his back. Big mistake as he is now fully exposed to Sekai as she clearly sees her advantage and is quick to straddle him. Between the horror and the pain ravaging Makoto, along with the terror of Sekai's homicidal wrath, he is effectively paralyzed. Through the haze of tears all he can do is watch Sekai raise a now bloodied kitchen knife (a knife that belongs to him) high over her head with both bloodied hands. Her expression is of both fury and anguish._

"_Wanting happiness only for yourself," she cried, "with Katsura!"_

_And she plunges that knife into him again. This time, he can hear the sound of his own flesh being punctured with a sickening crunching tearing sound. Once more she pulls the knife out and raises it high with both hands and plunges into him again._

_And repeats this several more times._

_Pain and horror beyond anything Makoto had ever experienced in his entire life saturates his being. His life continues flashing before his eyes, and all of it involving both Kotonoha and Sekai. More tears flow down his cheeks. Guilt manages to worm its way into that churning ocean of horror, further preventing his survival mode from kicking in. Guilt over how he had destroyed the recent events of his life with Sekai, Kotonoha, and even with the other girls._

_He now feels that he deserves to die._

_From Makoto's perspective, the stabbing seems to go on and on. His stomach and lower chest being the areas to get punctured. Not once does he even scream out in pain, even though it's enough to do so. That is when he feels the blade pierce through the left-side of his breastbone, squarely through his heart as it felt as if it had nearly gotten sliced in two. It's all over now, this he knew. With his last bit of fading life, he manages to reach up, ignoring the agonizing pain of torn flesh, to touch Sekai's stomach. He suddenly feels satisfation._

"_Thank goodness!" Rasping what he knows are to be his last words, as he feels nothing inside of her._

_This causes Sekai to give pause. Makoto sees the raging agony of her expression lighten with puzzlement. Satisfied, he collapses as his hand falls away. He stares upward, determined to keep his eyes open so that Sekai can watch his life slip away. He watches her expression fade to shock before his vision turns blurry as blackness closes in from all around and forms tunnel vision, which in turn begins disappearing into darkness._

_His last thoughts before his mind drifts into oblivion is over how much Kotonoha will suffer._

The sun is setting on this overcast day; casting a red, orange, and yellow glow throughout the clouds over the western horizon that is the Sea of Japan. A cool zephyr is blowing from over the sea, carrying the smell of brine over the landscape of Hokkaido toward its majestic snow-capped mountains that dominate the landscape.

A figure dressed in a formal navy blue suit, white shirt, red tie, and clutching a simple black cane stands upon those shores staring out over that sea.

That figure is Ito Makoto.


	2. Chapter 1

Every color of immense intensity and richness swirls and shifts about as if within Makoto's very eyes. A jumble of sounds scream in his ears. A mixture of intense sweetness, sourness, saltiness, bitterness, and savory assaults his taste buds all at once. His nasal cavity is being permeated by every sort of smell. Intense sensations of heat, cold, pressure, soft, hard, pain, and pleasure are being felt all at once, with the pain rapidly disappearing. The pleasure is almost orgastic. Each and every one of his cells is tingling. Intense emotions of anger, sorrow, euphoria, and terror storm within him all at once yet with neither dominating.

Makoto finds himself overwhelmingly aware as he gasps loudly and deeply. His eyes burn intensely from being dry and shuts them tightly on a reflex as copious amounts of tears moisten them. His chest tingles in various areas, with one of them being his heart.

He continues lying there with his eyes still close, confused and terrified as he repeatedly gasps. Upon opening them, he stares up at the ceiling for a moment before taking notice of somebody standing in the doorway. His heart skips a beat as he believes it to be Sekai coming to finish the job; except it's only Kotonoha gaping down at him in hazy bewilderment.

The memories of the attack flood him with shock and he jack-knifes up with fright, wondering if it had all been a vivid nightmare. Yet it is not to be so as he glaringly notes being surrounded by a pool of his own blood, along with more of it drenching his clothing, filling him with fright. The tingling sensations have since stopped.

Makoto continues gasping repeatedly as he clasps his own head and briskly runs his fingers through them, getting more blood through them. He hastily begins undoing his bloodied and torn jacket to reveal his equally bloodied and torn shirt, which he in turn rips open to send the buttons flying. Other than his nipples, along with dried blood smearing his chest and stomach, there is nothing but smooth skin as he briskly runs his hands over himself, smearing his blood a bit more.

Once again, he clasps his head; slapping his hands there this time as he doubles over even more as his gasping and expression grow hysterical. He knows full well that Sekai had repeatedly stabbed him with a large kitchen knife. Having distinctively felt the blade puncture his skin, muscle, and viscera. The memory of the pain is still fresh in his mind, even if he no longer feels any such thing.

Yet not even so much as a scratch adorns his torso while his shirt and jacket bear several large tears from being punctured.

He next stares slowly upward at Kotonoha as he lowers his hands but still holds them aloft, as if he had forgotten about her for the moment. She in turn stares back down at him with her hand now pressed to her mouth. They stare at each other for a moment longer as neither wanted to do nor say anything just yet. Makoto continues sitting there looking between the mess around himself, at his own hands, then at her. Confusion and hysteria boil within him.

Kotonoha lowers her hand and slowly walks up to him then kneels next to him, heedless of the bloody mess around her. She slowly reaches out to him and touches his face, then begins to slowly stroke it.

"It's a miracle!" She whispered in her childlike voice.

"I was dead!" He said meekly, vulnerably, as his voice quavered. His now blood-shot eyes bulge with horror and his pupils and irises are all but tiny pinpricks. More tears flow down his cheeks. "I was dead . . . ! Murdered . . . ! By Sekai!".

"I know!" Kotonoha sighed in a spaced manner as she continues stroking his face.

"This doesn't make any sense!" Sobbing in a low but hysterical voice as he begins shivering. "This doesn't make any sense!" Practically screaming that last part as he holds his hands away from himself as claws. His shivering more intense now. "This-This is a nightmare! Sekai turned on me and I had not the slightest hint of what was coming! And now . . . " Giving Kotonoha a horrified look before continuing in a meeker and terrified tone once again. "And now . . . ! I come back from the dead . . . !? Wha-What's going on!? Wha-What's wrong with me!?" Shivering and becoming more hysterical now.

Kotonoha quickly grabs him and presses his face into her bosom as she shushes him tenderly, rocking him for emphasis. Makoto clings to her as he shrieks and howls all of his outrage and anguish into her while shaking and shivering.

"It's okay," she cooed as she continues to hold and rock him. "I'm just so thankful that you're alive now."

For a long time, Makoto keeps his face buried into her bosom, wailing and shrieking his anguish and outrage into her. After a time, he finally calms and feels better as he continues nestling his face into her bosom. She lays him back down on his back, but not before she uses her folded knees as a pillow. She continues stroking his hair. Makoto lies there staring up and off into nothingness, pie-eyed with shrunken pupils and irises that are tiny dots within a weary and pained look that make him look so lost and vulnerable.

"I-I should be dead," he droned absently. "Th-This isn't normal . . . ! Wh-Where are my wounds . . . ? Wh-Why am I alive . . . ? Am I a monster?"

"So what is going to be done about Sekai, Makoto-kun?" Kotonoha asked, trying to take his mind off this miracle.

He is silent for a moment as he continues to stare upward with an open mouth. He slowly closes his eyes and takes a deep breath and exhales before opening them once again. His expression back to normal more or less.

Makoto slowly sits up as he groans tiredly while rubbing his face with both hands before lowering them. Once again he is silent.

"First we get cleaned up," he said hoarsely and tiredly as he rises. "Then we clean up this mess."

They each take turns using the bathroom, with Makoto laundering both his and Kotonoha's clothing. Yet his bloodied and torn shirt he decides to keep as it is.

"Look at this," Makoto mused after he comes out of the bathroom bare torsoed while rubbing a spot on his waist, before taking his hand away to show Kotonoha. "I don't have a navel now! Not only that, but I have strange thoughts too!"

"What sort of thoughts?"

"I . . . I can think more clearly now! I'm more aware of the past and future! But most of all . . . I have this number of people in my mind! Fourteen! Seven of them male and the rest female!"

"I don't know what to say about that."

After cleaning up, they next try to clean up all the blood. They use various detergents to try and clean the rug. Yet it proves to be a difficult task, forcing Makoto to come to the conclusion that he will have to replace it. They do, however, manage to clean the blood off the walls though.

Afterwards, as Kotonoha returns to the living room, she notices Makoto in the kitchen with his back to her. He looks to be doing something. At one point, he slowly shakes his head and stops. Again, he slowly shakes his head and stops.

Curious, she goes over to see what he is doing. Then gasps upon seeing what it is.

He is cutting his hand with a pearing knife.

She watches as the gash rapidly disappears in a matter of seconds, ultimately leaving no trace of a scar, and only a trace of blood from where it had bled for a second. Such a gash should have needed stitches to close up. Makoto slowly shakes his head as it disappears. His expression eerily child-like. Again, he gashes himself in that same area. Not once does he flinch. Once again, that gash disappears in a matter of seconds, leaving only a trace of blood. And again, Makoto slowly shakes his head.

Again he gashes himself only to get the same results. And again. And again. And again still.

Kotonoha finally has enough as she darts her hand out to stop him, and this time pries the knife out of his hand.

"It just keeps disappearing!" Makoto said in child-like wonderment. His expression looking as if he is about to break from reality. "And there's no pain! None!"

"Makoto, listen!" Kotonoha stated as she grabs him by the shoulders and shakes him slightly. "We have to go see Sekai! And I know where to get her to come."

That seems to work as Makoto shakes his head slightly as he shuts his eyes.

"You're right!" He stated intently as he walks past her with a purposeful stride. "Let's go!"

As they exit the apartment complex, Makoto feels a growing sense of unease whenever anyone glances at them.

"What's wrong?" Kotonoha asked upon noticing this.

"I-I feel as if everyone all around knows what had happen," Makoto whispered to her.

"I don't think any of them know."

"No, that's not it. It's what I've become. It's almost as if they . . . they suspect something about me. They suspect that I'm now different somehow."

"Well you did-!"

But Makoto is quick to shush her. "Not where anyone might hear!"

* * *

It is late in the evening as Makoto and Kotonoha are now at the school up on the rooftop. With Kotonoha's help, they had managed to pull some strings and be allowed to wait there. Makoto is carrying a dufflebag that contains his bloodied and torn shirt.

"I'll be waiting out of sight," Makoto said as he takes out his cellphone, "so I want to surprise her. I want to see the look on her face when she sees me."

"But isn't what you're about to do going to spoil that?" Kotonoha asked with uncertainty.

"I'm sending her a text message," he assured her as he begins pressing buttons. "She'll also end up thinking that it's you sending it."

"Good plan."

Makoto types out his message. Already he can feel a ticklish tingling sensation in his palms and groin from anticipating Sekai's reaction.

* * *

When Sekai arrived back home, she had managed to avoid her mother because she knew that she will be out until late. This gave her enough time to hide both the knife and her bloodied clothing. She next bandaged her hand and went to take a shower.

Now she sits upon her bed with her legs folded up to her chin and hugging her knees. Her mind is in a shambles over what she had done. Yet, she begins feeling a little less guilty as she tries to rationalize why she had killed Makoto. The whole thing seems to have been a blur, as if she had just dreamt the whole thing. But it is no dream as she had to hide her bloodied clothing and that knife.

By now, Kotonoha must have found his body. Police will be at her door any minute now because she will have told them her suspicions and they will follow it through. Sekai can almost hear a knock on the door. They will come armed with a search warrant and search through the place top and bottom.

Whatever further thoughts she has are interrupted by her cellphone going off, the chime indicating a text message. She answers it to find that it's from Makoto.

For a moment, she feels herself being thrown for a loop, only to recover and understand that it's really Kotonoha, meaning that she found his body.

_I'm waiting at the rooftop_, it read.

Sekai sighs deeply. What is Kotonoha up to!? In that instance, it makes her think that she wants revenge. Good, because now she can kill Kotonoha and claim self-defense. This will kill two birds with one stone because the police might end up suspecting Kotonoha of killing Makoto, deflecting any suspicions from herself.

Sekai puts her coat on before getting that knife out and putting it in her pocket. She knows exactly what rooftop that Kotonoha was referring to.

* * *

Kotonoha is keeping watch from up above while Makoto hid alongside the entrance/exit, giving him a clear view of the coming encounter. He had taken out the shirt, ready to show it to Sekai. He had cautioned Kotonoha about Sekai's probable intentions and stands at the ready to intervene at a moment's notice. He also asked Kotonoha to give him a sign of some sort to let him know when to reveal himself.

Twilight continues to fade and the stars and moon are now out.

"I think I see her coming right now," Kotonoha suddenly said.

Sure enough, the sound of the doorhandle is heard a little later, along with the door being slowly opened. Just like Kotonoha and Makoto, she had easily walked in. Not knowing that Kotonoha had managed to inform school officials that Sekai will be along a little later.

Sekai slowly walks out, her back fully to Makoto with only a distance of a couple of feet between them. He hopes that she won't feel a presence and be compelled to turn around. Fortunately, the dim lighting also casts dark shadows so she might not notice him right away.

Makoto tenses as he watches Sekai put her hand into her jacket pocket for a moment. He catches a glimpse of a handle poking out slightly and tenses like a spring coil, only to relax slightly when she pulls her hand free and begins walking toward Kotonoha, thankfully oblivious of his presence.

Throughout it all, Kotonoha didn't seem to be nervous at all as she appears to be so casual about the whole thing. He figures that it must be his presence that is putting her at ease.

"Did you go to the hospital?" Kotonoha asked Sekai in her child-like manner, although flatly. "He's a good doctor."

"I haven't gone," Sekai answered back, also flatly.

Makoto knew he was right in his hunch over Sekai believing that it would have been Kotonoha who sent that message. Then that can only mean that Sekai believes that she knows that Kotonoha knows about his death. It can only mean that Sekai might try to do away with Kotonoha for knowing too much.

"Why is that?" Kotonoha continued curiously.

"I'm not gonna go to a hospital you recommend," Sekai answered back with a touch of haughtiness.

"You're lying," Kotonoha answered in a surprisingly frank manner. Makoto had clearly underestimated her resolve, for she doesn't seem as fragile as she appears. "It's because of that, isn't it . . . ? To take Makoto away from me, you made up that story about being pregnant, didn't you?"

"You're wrong!" Sekai snapped as she rubs her stomach on a reflex.

"Why am I wrong?"

"I'm really . . . !"

"Then, you would have had shown the baby to him at the hospital. You couldn't possibly give birth to his baby, could you? Because I'm Makoto's girlfriend. Is it not?"

"Me too," Sekai now sobbed. "I wanted to become Makoto's girlfriend too!" Yelling as she is now on the verge of crying. "Because of that, I endured it and let Makoto do whatever he wanted . . . ! Why? How come?!"

Makoto feels a jab of surprise over that remark, causing him to frown slightly. Sekai now seems so vulnerable, and yet she had managed to kill him!?

"If it's all about Makoto," Kotonoha said casually, before pointing and looking toward him, "Makoto is right over there."

He takes this to be his cue. Sekai looks to be on the verge of turning around, only to hesitate.

"Why don't you ask him yourself?" Kotonoha concluded.

"Yes, Sekai," he finally demanded as he begins walking toward them, causing Sekai to spin around with a shocked expression. Makoto finally walks out of the shadow into the full light of both the moon and city lights. "Ask me."

His expression is grim as his eyes are like dots on a sea of white. The moonlight seemingly making his sclera glow.

Sekai makes strangling sounds as her expression turns to utmost horror.

"N-No!" She rasped breathily as she shakes her head in denial while holding her hand to her mouth. Her other hand slipping into her pocket to grip the knife handle even harder. "No, it's impossible!"

"Does this look familiar?" Makoto demanded as he holds the torn and bloodied shirt aloft before her with both hands for a moment, then lowers it. "And do these words you spoke to me sound familiar: you're despicable; wanting happiness only for yourself, with Katsura. Then there's my final words as I touched your stomach to feel nothing inside: thank goodness."

Sekai makes choking sounds as if she is being strangled. Her legs grow weak and she does a pratfall and scuttles away from him as quickly as she can. Panic fueling her speed. She keeps crawling back from him as fast as she can, all the while her expression is pure terror. Makoto drops the shirt and begins stalking toward her, feeling a bit of a rush over this as he can see that she is now the prey instead.

Her back finally hits the fencing, stopping her from going any further. Makoto still keeps coming, and this time Sekai quickly scrambles to her feet and reaches in to pull the knife out. Except she finds nothing as she keeps fumbling around in her pocket, gasping hysterically. That is when she takes notice that it had fallen out of her pocket as it lies upon the rooftop, glinting in the moonlight. Makoto also notices it and goes over and picks it up. He looks it over, frowning at the sight of his own blood staining it.

He glares back at Sekai and stalks toward her. All Sekai does is shut her eyes tightly and feels her mind trying to hide away from her body. She shivers and sobs as tears flow down her face. Her expression tense, knowing that it is now all over as Makoto is about to return the favor. That is when she feels a warm wetness running down her legs, along with a hot squishy feeling in the seat of her panties.

"Look at me!" Makoto growled as he now stands before her. "Look at me!" Almost shouting that command.

Sekai does as she was told while shivering.

"She peed and crapped herself," Kotonoha announced casually as she obviously had noticed this somehow, given that the lighting is dim.

"Good," Makoto answered with a smirk at Sekai as he slowly raises the knife to be level with his face. "She deserves to after what she did to me."

For what seemed like long seconds, Makoto and Sekai stare back at each other, with Makoto within easy stabbing distance of her, if he so chooses to. His nose crinkles a bit upon the stench she now exudes.

That is when he places the edge of the blade against his cheek, causing Sekai to sneer slightly with puzzlement. He cuts his face all the way down to his chin. Sekai gapes in shock at what he had just done. But her shock becomes even more intense as she watches the gash rapidly disappear until there looks to have never been one there in the first place, leaving only a stained trail of blood. Once again, he casually cuts his face in the same area, and once again it rapidly disappears to leave another stained trail of blood. He wipes the blood away.

"Strange, isn't it?" Makoto said in a breathy inane manner. "Those wounds you gave me are also gone as well! I-I should be dead, and yet here I am before you, alive!"

"Alive!" He suddenly ranted as he grabs hold of her shoulder fiercely, shoving her into the fence while getting into her face with an expression of restrained fury, causing Sekai to squeal with terror. "You understand me!? Alive!"

"Wha-What are you!?" Sekai sobbed hysterically.

Makoto is silent for a moment. "I don't know," he finally answered, softly, fearfully, for that moment as his grip loosens and he straightens. Yet only for that moment as his furious expression returns and his grip tightens as he hunches over to get into her face once again. Fury burning within his eyes.

"I oughta return the favor!" He growled through gnashed teeth as he raises the tip of the blade to her cheek. Sekai had never felt more terrified than right now. "But no." As he suddenly lowers the knife and his demeanor now softens as he let her go. "This is so much better. Having you live out the rest of your life with the knowledge and experience of having murdered a loved one, only to have them come back from the dead to confront you is infinitely more satisfying than killing you."

Makoto takes a deep breath and exhales as he looks up at the sky.

"Between it being late at night," he said curtly as he continues staring upward, "and my being in too much shock over what I've become, I'm not up to talking with you right now." He looks to her once again. "So I'll be seeing you at school. Goodnight."

He turns to walk away, pausing only for a moment to pick up the bloodied shirt and wrap the knife in it as he continues along. Kotonoha follows closely behind. Makoto stuffs it into a duffelbag.

Sekai by this time had fallen to her knees while staring downward, ignoring the mess she had made in her panties.

"What the hell is going on here!?" She finally gasped. At first, Makoto is about to answer, but she is not looking at him. "He was dead! Dead! How can someone come back from the dead!? How can they never suffer injury!? What is he!?"

Makoto now learns that the shock of his survival unhinged Sekai, probably for a moment or so, maybe longer. Her perception upon reality must be sorely tested now. Just as his now is.

He knows that Sekai will end up having trouble sleeping tonight, and for a long series of nights to come. And frankly, he knows that he will too.

* * *

The next day, Makoto and Kotonoha are up and on that cruise aboard her father's yacht. They lie out on the bow together as they cuddle. Kotonoha opens her eyes and looks down at him with a lazy smile.

"We're finally alone together, Makoto-kun," she said dreamily.

"You're awfully calm about this whole thing, Kotonoha," he whispered in her ear.

"What can I do about it?"

"I see your point. But as for me . . . ? I'm scared."

"What are you scared of?"

"I . . . I don't know what I've become," he quavered. "I-I can't be the same person anymore . . . And . . . And I'm frightened of myself!"

"Well it's not like you're a zombie. You're still the same person you were before you were killed. You ate this morning and you used the washroom. Plus I can hear your heartbeat, feel your breath, and you're very warm too."

"But how can one explain it!? I feel so much like a-!"

That is when he gasps slightly and his expression turns to slight shock while pushing away from Kotonoha to quickly roll away and sit up. He stares intently toward land that he was back on to.

"Wha-What is it? What's wrong?" Kotonoha asked in soft concern as she looks to where he is looking at.

Makoto continues to stare silently toward land.

"I don't know," he finally answered. "But whatever I was feeling, it's gone now."

"What did you feel?"

"It . . . I-It-It felt as if there was somebody in my head . . . ! A-Almost as if . . . as if somebody was here with us and they were staring right at me!" Then on a more casual tone as he lies back down upon the bow. "Then again maybe it was just my imagination. So much has happened to me."

* * *

Back on shore, the distance between it and the yacht make them appear as dots upon the bow. In an alleyway, a stranger is hidden.

_He is only a teenager_. The stranger mused. _So he has yet to understand_.


	3. Chapter 2

Makoto is lying upon his back unable to move as Sekai is straddling him, brandishing a saw whose form is like a large straight razor. She is without expression and her eyes are cold and dead; just like when she had first stabbed him.

"This time I'll make sure you stay dead," she said intently as the blade glints.

In a flash she brings it down across his throat and begins sawing.

Makoto lashes out with a shout, only to quickly discover that he is actually alone. He sighs with relief as he flops back onto his bed, his pounding heart now growing calm once again. He lies there, thinking about all that had happened to him; unable to wrap his mind around the fact that he had been killed and came back from the dead, with no injury remaining on him.

He thinks about those thirteen other people out there; those six men and seven women (knowing that the fourteenth one and seventh man is obviously himself). Did they die and come back from the dead too!? Do wounds disappear from them like they do from him!?

Moreover, was that the presence of one of them that he had felt back on Kotonoha's yacht!?

So many questions, so many answers to seek. He hopes that someday somebody somewhere will answer them.

* * *

Sekai arrives at school that morning, bleary-eyed with a haggard look that is the obvious result of poor sleep. Whenever she did get any sleep, it had a tendency to be interrupted by nightmares of a zombie Makoto attacking her in her own bedroom, causing her to awaken in terror that forced her out of bed and pace around.

She wonders if coming to school was a good idea in the first place. When she awoke this morning, she almost wanted to skip school but was too afraid of doing so. Fearing that he might come down to her place to confront her about it. That and she had already missed too many school days to begin with. Any more and she will be expelled.

It all seems absolutely impossible. Makoto had lost half the blood in his body by the time she finished stabbing him. Moreover, she distinctively remembers stabbing him at one point along the left side of his breastbone, directly into his heart! She even watched his life leaving his eyes!

Then came that confrontation atop of the school here. It turned out to be him after he told her what she had said to him, then what he said in return before he finally died. Worse, he picked up the knife she had used on him and deliberately cut his own face with it, watching as the cut disappeared completely before her very eyes!

She has a headache now. It happens whenever she thinks too much into it. Worse, it's stretching her perception upon reality once again, causing everything to seem to take on a fake quality to her. A sure sign of an impending mental breakdown if she doesn't get a grip on the situation.

Sekai does know of factual stories about people who had been stabbed and lived to tell about it, especially of people who received more stab wounds than what she had given Makoto. There was even a story she remembers about a guy who got stabbed directly through his heart and lived to tell about it! Even documented cases of people who had lost half the blood in their body and they too had lived to tell about it.

But none of them were quick to return to normal like Makoto had been, and certainly none of them ended up dispelling injuries like he had either. And she is ready to swear upon both her own life and her mother's that she had watched his life leave his eyes.

When it comes down to it, Sekai needed to accept the fact that a miracle had happened to bring Makoto back to life. Either that or he is not a human being.

"Hey, Sekai," Katou Otome called out as she walks up to her. She has brown hair in a ponytail at her nape. "We're so glad that you came back to school."

Alongside her is another girl named Kuroda Hikari, who also has brown hair but in a pair of looped braids.

"You look terrible," Hikari asked. "How is everything between you and Makoto now?"

"Yeah," Otome added, "did you two patch things up?"

Sekai stares at them for a moment as she blinks absently. What can she say!? That she had killed him and he came back from the dead!?

"It's over," she answered flatly.

"What!?" Otome gasped.

"You and Makoto are no longer together anymore!?" Hikari added.

"That's right," Sekai continued flatly. "He and Kotonoha are back together again."

"What is wrong with that boy!?" Hikari grated with exasperation. "How can he just dump you like that, now that you're pregnant with his baby!?"

"He has truly turned into an asshole!" Otome stated bitterly.

* * *

It is a little later when Makoto and Kotonoha arrive at school together. By now, everyone knows as they look at them while speaking amongst themselves. Makoto thinks that Sekai hadn't come after all, until he sees a familiar figure amongst that crowd staring intently at them with a very uneasy expression.

The warning bell rings and everyone is quick to file into the school.

Makoto enters class and stares at Sekai for a moment, who in turn stares back. His stare is grim while hers is one of fear. He squints one eye grimly, not knowing if he should just ask the teacher to allow him to sit elsewhere, except he knows that the teacher will refuse. So he decides to go and sit next to her, as much as he hates to.

As he approaches her, Sekai feels her unease grow as her expression shows as such. They speak not a word nor glance at one another as Makoto sits next to her, causing Sekai to shuffle away from him to the very edge of her seat. Makoto also remains on the very edge of his seat as well. They do not pass notes either.

Class time proves to be an extremely awkward session. Sekai sweats during the duration of class. Each movement Makoto makes causes her to flinch and gasp slightly. He is getting a perverse pleasure over knowing that she is deathly afraid of him. This pleasure helps him focus on his classes or else he might have been too enraged to concentrate. The teacher doesn't need to speak to them like he sometimes needed to in the past.

The morning passes into noon and the lunch bell rings. Not soon enough as far as Sekai and Makoto are concerned as Sekai quickly leaves the classroom, to be followed by Makoto. In the hallway, Kotonoha awaits him.

"That was about the quietest time Sekai ever was in class," Makoto said. "She was unnerved the whole time. I kept expecting her to run out of there screaming."

"I'm surprised you handled it so well. What with having to sit next to her that is. You must still be very angry with her."

"Very angry is an understatement," Makoto answered curtly. "I am seething with rage."

They go into the cafeteria together and almost immediately everyone goes quiet as all heads turn to regard them. Makoto once again feels that uneasiness. Do they truly suspect that he came back from the dead!? Did Sekai tell them that!? As for Sekai, they see her sitting over in one corner with her friends. Sekai pales upon his appearance and she begins packing up her lunch then stands and walks out, much to the bewilderment of her friends. They regard Makoto and Kotonoha with glares as they take their seat at a table with some guys. One of them being Makoto's friend, Sawanaga Taisuke.

"Damn, but Sekai is taking that breakup pretty hard," Taisuke said. "It's all over the school now."

"Believe me it's for the better," Makoto answered in a soft and intent manner as he undoes his lunch.

"So what caused it?" Taisuke probed.

Makoto is about to refuse to answer when Hikari comes over and leans across the table at him with a glare.

"All right, Makoto, spill it," she demanded. "Why are you going out with Kotonoha all of a sudden when Sekai is pregnant with your baby!? What happened? Did you suddenly take pity upon Ko-?"

Makoto slams his hands down upon the table, silencing both her and the whole room. He then clenches them into fists as he trembles and gasps with his head lowered and eyes cast in a shadow. He takes a deep breath and glares back up at her. The tension is thick.

"Fine," he growled. "I'll tell you what happened."

* * *

Sekai is in the washroom staring intently at her own reflection before the door opens and Hikari enters.

"Makoto told me everything," she said flatly as she walks up to Sekai. "I still have a hard time picturing someone like you doing such a thing. But I'm beginning to think that it just might be possible."

Sekai blinks in bewilderment as her expression registers as such with sweat drops running down her face and her pupils and irises shrinking.

"H-How can you be so calm about the whole thing!?" She finally exploded while grabbing Hikari's shoulders and shaking her. "I can't even wrap my head around the possibility of something like that! For a moment I thought that I had dreamed the whole thing!"

"Sekai, I don't see why you have to be so melodramatic about all this!" Hikari stated sarcastically as she clasps her friend's shoulders. "There are millions of people out there with the same problem!"

"So what the hell are you saying!?" Sekai screamed into Hikari's face upon pulling her closer into her own. "That there are millions of people out there who murdered someone, only to have their victims come back from the dead!? Where are they!? Where!? Can they give me peace of mind!? Because I think I lost mine when I knifed Makoto to death in his apartment! I left the bastard in a huge pool of his own blood!"

Then in a more quiet and desperate tone. "Then I received a text from whom I thought to be Kotonoha using his cellphone to meet me up on the school rooftop! When I got there, Kotonoha was there, but then Makoto stepped from the shadows looking no worse for wear! He cut his face twice and those cuts disappeared before my very eyes!"

"So Makoto really was telling the truth," Hikari stated as she manages to pry Sekai's hands from her own shoulders and back away. "He really did catch you taking drugs in his apartment."

Sekai seems to choke as turmoil storms within her. She is about to deny the accusation, until she understands that any claims she makes about killing Makoto and his resurrection will merely make her sound insane.

"I-I don't know what to say," she suddenly said meekly as she turns away while staring down, playing it up.

"You can get help," Hikari stated softly.

"Even if it was only my first try?" Sekai lied. "Because it was. I found it in on the ground in a park a few days ago. A small vial with a cap that was filled with a dark yellow liquid. I found out that it was LSD after I did a search on the Web. But instead of disposing it properly, I kept it on me. Then, when I was in Makoto's apartment that day, I took it. I have no reason why I did, but I just did. That's when I started tripping out, having all those weird hallucinations."

"That was a very foolish thing you did," Hikari scolded. "You could've died."

"And I could've hurt my baby," Sekai said as she rubs her stomach.

"He also claims that you're not really pregnant because he told me that he felt your stomach and felt nothing in there. Kotonoha also backs him up on it."

"I threw up and my period is late, what does that tell you!? Not only that but did that prick also happen to tell you about how he, with the help of that shitty bimbo, tried to set me up with a doctor to get an abortion!? Worse, he texted it to me!"

"Suit yourself," Hikari sighed as she turns to leave, only to stop momentarily at the door. "But you must understand this," as she glances back over her shoulder at Sekai. "Even if you really are pregnant and you choose to have that baby, you're still too young to be a mother."

Then opens the door and leaves.

Sekai gnashes her teeth as she trembles with outrage. Her thoughts are suddenly interrupted by the sensation of urinating herself. She hurries into a stall as she clenches her vaginal muscles to try and stop the flow. She quickly drops her panties and squats over the toilet. Sure enough, what comes out isn't urine after all.

She sighs, knowing that she can no longer carry on the charade. Then again, even if she really were pregnant, she might have had that abortion anyway. What with her bearing a child that got fathered by a boy she had clearly murdered, and who came back from the dead. Not something that she really wanted a child to be connected to in the first place.

Sekai stops thinking upon coming to his resurrection; not wanting to dwell upon it if she wants to keep her sanity.

Once again, it comes time to return to class. And once again, Makoto and Sekai endure the other's close presence. Makoto slides his notebook over to Sekai, who looks at it and frowns.

_Meet me and Kotonoha up on the rooftop after school_, it read. _We only want to talk_.

A sweat drop runs down the side of her face while giving him a hard leer. She then writes, fine, and slides it back over to him.

The day seems to drag on, until the bell finally rings to signal the end of the school day. Later, the trio goes out onto the rooftop. Makoto leans his back onto the closed door, tilting his head downward while crossing his arms. His eyes hidden as he frowns. Kotonoha sits upon one of the benches.

Makoto's frown grows ever more intense as he begins to tremble and sob, then gnashes his teeth as tears begin rolling down his face.

"Why!" He hissed venomously in a quavering tone as he glares with pinpricks in his eyes. "Why did you do that to me!?" Shouting that last part.

"Because you neglected me!" Sekai screeched in outrage while pointing ardently at him as tears flow down her cheeks. "You neglected me to go stuff your cock into every girl in the school . . . ! You rejected me to go back to her . . . !" Pointing fiercely at Kotonoha. "You made me so miserable and lonely . . . ! Then to top it all off you sent me that . . . that text! It would've been bad enough if you had told me to my face, but by text . . . !? That's why I snapped! And it's all your fault!"

"It was still murder!" Makoto shouted as he lunges at her with an expression of rage, causing Sekai and even Kotonoha to flinch.

He immediately slaps his hands over his face while suddenly gasping so fiercely that it sounds as if he had screamed. He weeps loudly for a bit before taking several deep breaths then rubs his face intently with a gasp before lowering them. This time he feels a little better, yet his eyes reflect his overwhelming hurt.

"But I should've seen it coming when I saw that look on your face!" He continued in a low and menacing growl. "It was the look of death! You had my murder all planned out, starting with that message you sent me to meet me alone at my place! I offered to make some tea, but you were quick to do that for me instead; setting me up so that you could send me another text to make me believe that it was from somebody else, knowing that I'd leave the room to answer it! You took a knife, watched me go to my bedroom, and followed! First you typed in, sorry, then kept pressing return to hold my attention! Finally you typed in, goodbye! I turned around and-!"

Only to stop as he inhales sharply while covering his mouth and shutting his eyes tightly as he sobs and trembles. He recovers a bit as he glares at her with more tears running down his cheeks.

"Do you have any idea of what I was going through while you were killing me!?" Sobbing in a slow and hurt, but vicious tone. "Words cannot describe the hell you were putting me through . . . ! My entire life passed before my eyes, starting with the first stab! I had never felt such horror in my entire life . . . ! I-I don't think that I can ever feel that afraid for my life ever again . . . ! And you just attacked me as if I were some total stranger who violated you!"

"None of it would've ever happened if you had only just remained faithful!" Sekai rebuked harshly through her tears as she fiercely waggles a forefinger at him.

"It just goes to show what you thought of me from the start!" Makoto shouted.

"I did love you, you know!"

"Yeah, just after you set me up with Kotonoha!"

"No, I was in love with you ever since high school started!" Sekai wailed as more tears stream down her face.

"Then why set me up with Kotonoha in the first place!?" Makoto hissed. "Why make claims of supporting me all the way!? Why didn't you just come out about your feelings for me in the very beginning!?"

"Because you would've turn me down and nothing would've ever been the same ever again!" Sekai wailed. "That's why I set you up with her, thinking I could get over those feelings . . . ! But they didn't go away and just kept eating me up inside . . . ! Then you admitted your feelings for me that day during that rainstorm and . . . and . . . and how could I refuse . . . !? But what about the feelings you had for me at first!?"

"They didn't exist back then!"

"Oh, so you can just grow feelings and reject them!?"

"I didn't foresee them! Nobody can foresee such things! Nobody can certainly prevent them either!"

"So when you returned to Kotonoha, they just clicked back did they!?"

"When I ran into Kotonoha out on the street, she had lost her sanity! Seeing her suffer like that finally woke something up in me that had been there all along!"

"And what's to prevent them from getting lost again!?"

"My death! My last thoughts were of how much Kotonoha was going to suffer!"

There is a brief lull in their shouting match.

"Sekai," Kotonoha said coldly as she took advantage of that lull. "You still could've revealed your feelings for Makoto from the very beginning."

"Don't patronize me, you little shit!"

"She didn't try to kill me!" Makoto grated. He takes another deep breath before continuing. "In fact . . . ! Unlike you, she forgave me! You were there . . . ! But I don't know if I can ever forgive you, Sekai!"

"Fine," Sekai hissed. "Oh, and I'm not pregnant either because I just had my period . . . ! But even if I were, I just might have had that abortion anyway so as not to give birth to some kind of . . . of . . . f-freak . . . ! What the hell are you anyway!? Are you even human to begin with!?"

"Like I said," Makoto answered more calmly, "I don't know anymore. And it frightens me."

"Yeah, well, are we through with this conversation then?" Sekai asked curtly.

Makoto stares at her for a moment grimly, before closing his eyes momentarily as he tosses his head slightly toward the door, prompting Sekai to leave.

"Sekai," Makoto called coldly, causing her to stop just as she had laid her hand upon the knob. "Just so that you understand once and for all," then stared coldly at her, "it's over between us."

Sekai says nothing but opens the door and leaves, slamming it shut behind her.

Makoto and Kotonoha are now alone together as they hug.

"Kotonoha," he gasped with a quaver as he strokes the side of her face. "Where do we go from here now?"

"The same as always," she answered as she cradles his face then kisses him.

Seven days later as Makoto and Kotonoha are on their way to school, his cellphone chimes to let him know that he has a text. It turns out to be from Taisuke.

_!!!LOOK, NOW!!!_ It read in capital letters, framed by exclamation marks.

There is an attachment to it and he opens it. Makoto puzzles over the image as does Kotonoha from alongside him.

Filling the screen is a picture of a very pale Caucasian woman. Her features are both delicate and strong, framed by a deliberately tousled mane of moderately long but banged scarlet hair. She has a small and simple smile, yet it doesn't touch her clear grey eyes as they have a haunting persona to them. As if something dark and distant weigh in them.

"She's beautiful," Kotonoha noted. "Who is she?"

"He doesn't say," Makoto answered as he puts his cellphone away, his tone next turns dry. "But you can be certain that he will fill us in on the details when we get there."

Sure enough, just as they are walking across school grounds, Taisuke comes running up to them with a giddy wild-eyed expression.

"Did you get it!?" He finally shouted eagerly upon getting into Makoto's face while clasping his shoulders and shaking him slightly.

"Yes, I did," Makoto answered with annoyance. "Who is she?"

"Her name is Irene Lamane!" Taisuke quickly answered in a blissful tone as he suddenly lets go of Makoto and starts wavering with a blissful close-eyed expression as he nestles his folded hands against the side of his face. "She's gonna be our new foreign teacher here! What a goddess! She's of otherworldly beauty! Oh man but I hope she gets to teach some of our classes!" Then instantly returns to normal as he leans close to Makoto with a leer. "And hopefully I get some very special tutoring from her. Come on, come on," as he next tugs on Makoto's arm. "She's in the teacher's lounge!"

It is at the teacher's lounge that many of the students, especially the boys, are hanging around in the hopes of meeting their new foreign teacher. The door opens and the principal comes out, followed closely by the new teacher in question. By Western standards, she is a medium-sized woman, making her bigger than most Japanese women. She is wearing a blue semiformal jacket over a white satin blouse with a frilled collar and wrists, and a skirt matching her jacket.

She is also giving Makoto that same feeling he felt back on Kotonoha's yacht.

* * *

**Note:**

**There really is a documented case of some guy who actually survived a knife wound through his heart.**


	4. Chapter 3

Makoto, Kotonoha, and Taisuke are still staring at their new foreign teacher. That feeling Makoto got from her is now gone. As for the new teacher, she only glanced at Makoto. Yet that glance seemed to stare through him.

Nearby are Kumi, Natsumi, and Minami, three girls from Kotonoha's class who treat Kotonoha like their personal secretary.

"So that's the new foreign teacher," Kumi mused.

"Wow, she sure is pale," Natsumi marveled. "And her hair is so red and her eyes are so bright!"

"I have seen pictures and videos of Caucasians with red hair and bright eyes," Minami added, "but I never thought that I might meet one with those features."

Makoto and Kotonoha walk up alongside Sekai, who does a double take at them with a sneer in the second glance.

"That's our new foreign teacher," Sekai said flatly to them.

"So we were told," Makoto answered.

"She sure is beautiful, Makoto," Sekai sniped. "You gonna try gettin' some with her too? You'll be quite the super stud for it."

Makoto sneers at Sekai, feeling both annoyed and intrigued by her sudden impudence toward him. A complete turnaround from when he was first murdered by her, only to resurrect afterwards to confront her atop of the school and literally scare the shit out of her.

"Since many of you are now here to see the new foreign teacher," the principal suddenly announced, interrupting Makoto's thoughts, "she will now introduce herself."

Everyone immediately falls silent.

"My name is Irene Lamane and I am your new English and World History teacher," she announced in a strong and pleasant voice, and in fluent Japanese too.

For the rest of the day, Makoto puzzles over the new foreign teacher. She must suspect something if he can feel her inside his head. Did she feel him like that too!? Moreover, was it she who gave him those feelings back on Kotonoha's yacht!? This Irene Lamane seems to be much more than meets the eyes.

In the meantime Makoto and Sekai still keep the same seating arrangement, enduring the other's presence. They, along with Kotonoha, take World History Class. No sooner does Irene Lamane walk through that door before Makoto feels her inside his head once again, before automatically tuning it out once again moments later. Again, she only glances up at Makoto before looking down at a chart of the seating arrangements upon her desk.

"All right class," she began as she looks to them once again, "according to the curriculum, you are all supposed to be covering the chapter on Medieval Europe."

Class is taught without any sign on Irene's part that she holds Makoto in suspect.

" . . . Charlemagne's height was seven times the length of his foot," Irene lectured at one point. "When his tomb was reopened once again in the eighteenth century, he was measured to be one hundred and ninety-three centimeters tall, meaning that his feet must have been twenty-seven-and-a-half centimeters long. This meant that he had somewhat small feet for a man his size."

That is when Makoto writes in his exercise book and slides it over to Sekai.

_I can feel her inside my head_, he wrote.

Sekai winces at that remark then writes upon it and slides it back over to him.

_What the hell are you talking about!?_

"Just as I wrote!" Makoto growled back under his breath, before realizing that he had spoken aloud, causing everyone around to take notice.

The next thing to happen is Irene casually walking up toward Makoto and Sekai as she continues her lecture about the Middle Ages. They are both quick to lower their eyes. Apart from their culture discouraging eye contact with their superiors, bright eyes such as hazel, blue, green, or grey seem predatory to look into through the eyes of a people for whom pitch-dark eyes are the rule. A feature made even more so by Irene's haunting gaze.

Irene picks up the notebook and skims it.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she apologized casually as she puts it back down. "You really are taking notes, my mistake. I keep forgetting that this is not a Western school. Carry on." As she turns and walks away to the front of the class to resume her lecturing.

Makoto and Sekai puzzle over their teacher's reaction. That is when they notice a folded slip of paper wedged within the fold of the notebook. Makoto unfolds it to find that it's a note.

_Come straight to my office after school, along with any who know_.

Makoto and Sekai look at each other. While Sekai is curious over what it's all about, Makoto on the other hand understands.

At the end of the school day, Makoto, Sekai, and Kotonoha arrive at Irene Lamane's office. An office that she shares with several other teachers, judging by the presence of the other desks.

"Is there someplace we can all talk in private?" Irene asked them.

"I do know of such a place," Makoto said.

They are now coming out onto the rooftop.

"Nice place to have a private conversation," Irene mused as she looks around. "Except for when it rains of course . . . Now then, Makoto," as her tone turns serious with an equally serious look at him as she folds her arms, "you must know what I was referring to. And no doubt so does Kotonoha and Sekai, or else you wouldn't have bought them along. There's no easy way for me to say this, so here goes . . . you died, then came back to life."

The trio gape in astonishment, with Makoto visibly sweating.

"What happened for you to become this way, Makoto?"

He hesitates, for a moment, but finally tells her how he came to be the way he now is.

"That's quite the set of circumstances," Irene noted almost whimsically. "Consider yourself extremely fortunate that you managed to dodge the bullet, Sekai," she said to her in a cold hard tone with a glare to match, "because your ex was a pre-immortal all along."

"Pre-immortal!?" Sekai sneered.

"A person who is destined to become immortal," Irene explained. "Either upon their twentieth birthday or by dying before it."

Kotonoha and Sekai gape at Makoto, who in turn gawks down at his own hands.

"I-I'm . . . im-immortal!?" His tone quavering as he looks back up at Irene with bewilderment.

"You have been so ever since you came back from the dead."

Makoto gasps as his eyes shrink to pinpricks while gaping downward, then slowly lifts a hand to gingerly touch his own face momentarily. As if wondering if he is real. Already he can feel his perception upon reality stretch a little.

"And that was me you sensed when you were out on that yacht," Irene continued. "We can sense each other if so much as one of us happens to glance at the other who is within visual range, even if the watched one had not been paying any attention to begin with. It then gets tuned out a moment later, or until one of us goes away."

"Sense each other!?" Kotonoha exclaimed. "You mean you're immortal too!?"

"Indeed, I am. But I managed to turn peacefully upon reaching my twentieth birthday."

"Our Biology teacher once told us that biological immortality is impossible," Sekai pointed out.

"Your Biology teacher is right, in a way," Irene answered. "It seems that our immortality is neither spiritual nor biological, and yet at the same time it's both."

"That doesn't seem to make any sense," Makoto said.

"Nevertheless, Makoto," Irene continued, "this is what it means to be an immortal. It means that you can completely regenerate absolutely any type or degree of injury, tens of thousands of times faster than normal. Your skeleton is literally indestructible because it can instantly take on a counter resistance many times greater than the agent of destruction you might be subjected to, which also protects against potential dislocations. You will neither drown nor suffocate, and will remain perfectly active even when you're unable to breathe; only going into suspended animation if you're within an environment where there is neither form of oxygen and for as long as you're in said environment. You have absolute immunity to diseases, poisons, and drugs, with only the most potent poisons and drugs affecting you to merely render you temporarily weak or unconscious. You cannot die from temperature extremities, yet are still able to feel hot and cold. While you can still suffer the effects of starvation and dehydration, you cannot die from them. And finally, you have an indefinite lifespan and won't age. But since you were forcibly turned before you came of age, you still have a bit more growing and maturing to do up until you turn twenty."

They stare in awe for a moment as they mentally digest those facts.

"Just how many of you freaks are out there!?" Sekai then asked with bewilderment. "Or is it just you and Makoto who are like that!?"

"There are fourteen of us, seven males, seven females. Always fourteen and always those equal numbers of either gender. Yet for all I know, most of the others might still be pre-immortals."

"But that doesn't make any sense," Makoto said. "If there are twelve other people out there like you and me, then aren't they all immortal too?"

"We are immortal only in being as close as possible to its literal interpretation," Irene answered. "If we are ever stabbed through the torso by anything that is in contact with, or even a part of, a fellow immortal, we will be completely frozen like a statue for ten seconds. If during those ten seconds we are ever so much as separated into two complete pieces anywhere between our crown and groin, preferably through decapitation, then we will die. Then another pre-immortal of matching gender will be born afterwards."

"Immortals that can be killed," Sekai quipped nervously. "How much of a contradiction is that."

"Vanquish is a better word to use," Irene corrected. "Kill, slay, these create the context of a corpse being left behind. Instead, we vanish, faster than you can blink. We leave nothing, not even smoke or mist, but only what we wore. But why do such a thing, you might wonder? For their essence."

"Essence?" Makoto asked.

"Something that as an immortal you will gradually accumulate over your indefinite lifetime. It augments both mental and physical qualities. Mentally: greater intelligence, memory, perceptions. Physically: enhanced strength, speed, stamina, and senses. The mental part is perpetual, but the physical part takes concentration and must be held. When an immortal stabs another immortal, they create a temporary conduit between themselves so that when the frozen immortal is vanquished, all of that accumulated essence is channeled into the other immortal; thus permanently raising their amount of essence to make them even more powerful and gifted."

The trio is silently digesting all this once again.

"Th-This is like something out of a manga or anime," Sekai groaned as she momentarily rubs her forehead. "So if Makoto had really gotten me pregnant-!"

"No, we're sterile," Irene interrupted as she firmly shakes her head, "even as pre-immortals."

Makoto sighs with relief. "That must be the real reason why none of the other girls ever got pregnant," he then said.

"H-How long have you immortals been around for?" Kotonoha asked.

"I don't know," Irene merely shrugged as she slowly shakes her head. "There seems to have been immortals even before civilization began."

"What do you want from me, sensei?" Makoto asked.

"I want to teach you sword-fighting skills, Makoto," Irene replied in a somber tone. "I carry a sword in order to protect myself against any other immortal who might want to get me alone someplace and try to vanquish me. Let me teach you so that you can defend yourself against any other immortal that you might cross paths with. If we can meet each other simply by chance then it's only a matter of time before you meet another immortal by chance as well. I vanquished four other immortals because they wanted to vanquish me."

"W-Why do you want to help me?"

"Because I used to be in a similar situation like you one time, if a little differently though."

"T-This is all so sudden for me," Makoto sighed as he presses his palm against his forehead.

"Just as it had once been for me," Irene said.

"You might not want to do that, sensei," Sekai said wryly with a frown that involves dotted eyes, prominent brows, and a large sweatdrop. "Makoto might try and seduce you. But you don't need to take my word for it, just ask the other girls around here instead. Boy, have they got some stories to tell you."

"I will admit that he is a handsome boy," Irene said in an almost whimsical manner and smile to match as she crooks her head to one side for a moment, "and there is even a tender manner about him too." Only to suddenly turn serious once again. "Except such intimacy between two immortals is a bottomlessly deep commitment."

That is when Irene turns away and begins walking toward the door. "In the meantime, I have arrangements to make. You'll know what they are tomorrow morning. See you then."

She opens the door and leaves them alone.

"This is incredible!" Kotonoha spoke up in soft awe. "Who could've ever thought that there are people like you and Irene Lamane-sensei out there in the world? I also don't think that she's as young as she appears to be! She's probably older than my grandmother! That can only mean that she needed to move around a lot!"

"That is certainly true or else the whole world would've learned about her before now," Makoto answered. "She must need to work very hard in order to remain hidden for so long. It's easier to hide with dark hair and dark eyes than it is with either blond or red hair and blue, green, or grey eyes."

That is when Makoto suddenly gasps and his pupils and irises shrink to pinpricks as the enormity of what he has become suddenly sets in. It is so intense that he grows weak and collapses to his knees.

"Makoto, what is it!?" Kotonoha gasped as she quickly kneels alongside him and clasps his shoulders.

"Don't you see, Kotonoha!" He gasped. "You will eventually die, but I won't!"

"Yes," Kotonoha sighed wearily as she hugs him. "Yes, that's true. But it cannot be helped."

"Hey, look on the bright side, Makoto," Sekai then added sarcastically. "You can easily look after her when she gets old. Although you'll eventually have to pass her off as your mother, then your grandmother, and finally your great-grandmother. Unfortunately, she won't look good enough to screw by then. Hopefully science will become so advanced that it'll probably cure aging."

"And at least you will eventually die too," Makoto replied coldly.

"Whatever," Sekai sneered as she turns and walks toward the door. "All this discussion of immortals has given me a headache. I'm going home to lie down." Then stops at the door for a moment. "Oh, and since you never really needed any condoms to begin with, Makoto, try not to make too much noise up here with her."

She opens the door and leaves, leaving Makoto and Kotonoha alone to ponder.

"Why are you concerned about Irene-sensei's problem, Makoto-kun?"

"Because her problem will also become my problem. I'm going to have to disappear into a crowd when the time comes. And that means having to move away and change my name. So where will that leave you?"

"I'll be with you."

Makoto sighs as he cradles her face in his hands and looks into her eyes.

"But that's going to be a problem," he cooed. "You're the daughter of an important businessman. Someone like you just can't up and disappear without your family's knowledge. And do you even think that they won't notice that I'm not aging? What will make it even worse is the contemplation that they will know what I am."

"I never thought of it that way," Kotonoha said. "But something can be worked out."

"How?" He quavered. "How can we maintain a relationship if we have to hide, especially me?"

"Makoto-kun, you're talking about something that is thirty years away. Anything can happen between now and then."

"That's true, because a lot has happened to me within the past year."

* * *

**Note:**

**Let me just go on the record by stating that I am a Highlander Impurist.**


	5. Chapter 4

The following morning the students at the school are gathered around a bulletin board where a large sheet of paper is tacked upon it.

FENCING CLUB TO BE FORMED.

INQUIRE AT THE GYM AFTER SCHOOL.

INSTRUCTOR, IRENE LAMANE.

"I'm definitely gonna sign up!" Taisuke said to Makoto intently.

But Makoto ignores him as he continues staring at that bulletin.

"I think I'll enter too," he finally answered, discerning that this is obviously a cover to teach him sword fighting skills.

"I have a feeling that it'll be mostly guys showing up," Kanroji Nanami said. A tall athletic girl with short hair.

"Are you gonna join too, Nanami?" Sekai asked from alongside her.

"No, I'm busy enough as it is already."

"Well I'm gonna join," Sekai then said proudly while making a simpering smile at Makoto.

"You're desire to join has nothing to do with an interest in Fencing!" Makoto snapped, now gaining the attention of the other students around them.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Sekai answered plainly, though mockingly.

"Don't you give me that," Makoto growled. "This is just your way of getting revenge against me!"

"Revenge or justice?" Sekai said snidely. "We were together for a long time then you suddenly turned around and threw me away."

"We already had this discussion!" Makoto next sighed with a rasp as he shuts his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose for a moment before continuing with lament. "Why can't people just come out with their feelings about somebody from the start!? It can avoid so much tragedy and hardship! The worst thing that can happen to them is that they're refused!"

"And then life between them remains uncomfortable," Nanami interjected gently. "That and the person's feelings for them really won't go away. Eventually, they'll grow more uncomfortable with each other until they start becoming increasingly distant and stop being friends completely. So you see, we don't want to take that leap of faith for the fear of being alone."

Makoto wanted to tell her that he will eventually be alone. He wanted to tell everyone around him that in time everyone he currently knows or loves will eventually pass away. But instead of saying anything, he merely scowls at Nanami and walks away. His fear of exposure overwhelming him from saying any of this.

After school, it turns out that Nanami was right as out of the fifty potentials that show up, Makoto and Taisuke included, only ten of them are girls, which includes Sekai as she had threatened.

Irene stands before them with a clipboard in hand and sizes them up for a moment, briefly staring at Makoto and Sekai.

"Okay, here's the thing," she finally announced, quieting them. "I only have room for fourteen people: seven boys and seven girls. So I'll be taking names. In three days, you'll know if any of you make the cut as I'll be posting the list up on the bulletin board, since I also need time to obtain your fencing outfits. Don't worry about having to give me your measurements because I'll get those from your records. Now everyone stand side-by-side."

After taking everyones names, even putting an M or F next to their names to show male or female, she dismisses them.

Outside the gym, Kotonoha awaits Makoto, who exits with a scowl.

"What's wrong?" Kotonoha asked.

"Sekai wants to join the Fencing Club," he answered in a growl.

"Surely Irene-sensei won't allow it? Besides, it's not like she can hurt you anymore."

"No, but that still doesn't mean that I approve." Makoto had felt a jab of unease over Kotonoha's statement, feeling as if she had just spoken his secret aloud.

Sekai emerges with a smirk at Makoto.

"Oh take it easy, Makoto," she said snidely to him with a refuting wave. "It's not like I'm gonna be accepted like you will."

"Then why bother showing up in the first place?" Makoto asked coldly.

"Well now, how will I be able to know if I don't show up in the first place?"

"You certainly recovered pretty quickly, Sekai," Kotonoha said. "Given all that has happened."

"I'm just as surprised with myself," Sekai answered, then walks past them to leave. "I guess I adapted to this . . . thing . . . faster than I thought I would."

As Sekai walks away, Kotonoha and Makoto make their leave in the opposite direction. Irene had been watching and listening, using her essence to enhance her hearing beyond human range.

Three days later, the list for the Fencing Club is posted upon the bulletin board. The fifty potential candidates are now there staring at that list. There are two columns, one for the boys and the other for the girls. The seven names in each of them are in large lettering for all to see. As expected, Makoto sees his name up there and voices it so.

"There's my name too!" Sekai is next to beam as she points to her own.

_What is Irene-sensei thinking!?_ Makoto flustered inwardly with a scowl.

"My name's not there!" Taisuke wailed with a river of tears flowing down his cheeks.

"That's because Irene-sensei knows you only want to ogle her in the tight fencing suit she'll be wearing," Sekai answered wryly with an expression to match. That being a scowl as she leers at him with thickened brows and dots for eyes.

"Says the girl who only wants to join out of spite toward Makoto," Taisuke replied snidely as he looks to her with a scowl, closed eyes, nose held high, and folded arms.

"Something Irene-sensei doesn't seem to have a problem with," Sekai retorted while mirroring Taisuke.

Makoto confronts Irene about this in her office when she is alone for the moment.

"Sensei, I don't mean to be disrespectful," he began apologetically, yet in a flustered tone, "but why are you letting Sekai join?"

"In order for you to be able to persevere," Irene answered, "you'll need some stress. Sekai can provide you with that."

"She sure got brave all of a sudden, sensei. Considering how she messed herself when . . . you know." Being quick to guard his comments just as the door slides open and another teacher walks in.

"Sekai has simply adapted," Irene answered with a shrug, also being just as quick to understand the situation herself. "It was the element of surprise that had overwhelmed her. Once that element got taken away, she recovered; even if she's still in awe of the whole thing. Then there's the fact that she understands that you won't hurt her when you could've done so."

Makoto sighs and does a slight bow then leaves.

At the end of the school day, the fourteen chosen assemble in the gym to receive their outfits and foils. Their lessons begin in earnest.

As the days pass, the club becomes more tangible. Those days turn into weeks and the students grow increasingly proficient with their lessons. This is especially true of Makoto and Sekai as they end up proving to be the top in the club for their respective genders. Yet Irene never allows them to practice against one another and instead pairs them up with other fencing partners. Irene had once explained to Makoto that he needs to get his head cleared before going up against Sekai, yet she also told him that the day will come when he will get to go up against her. One of the things she does is have them cycle through partners on a weekly basis and back again so that they can formulate a different style when dueling a different opponent, as they have individual preferences in their attacks and parries. Makoto's motivation is due to Sekai's presence, coupled with his immortality. Sekai's motivation on the other hand comes from her sheer spite toward Makoto.

Over a month passes before it finally comes down to the inevitable. . . .

"Makoto, Sekai, you're up," Irene called.

They take their stance across from one another and bow first to Irene, then to each other. Each giving the other that glint of determination in their eyes before putting their helms on. Kotonoha had shown up beforehand, making this her first time here. A rare moment for her, given that she is on the student council which keeps her busy.

Makoto and Sekai face each other and make the fencer's salute before taking on the stance. Tension hangs in the air.

"Begin," Irene stated.

Makoto makes the first move and Sekai parries. Next it's her move and Makoto parries as well. They thrust and parry with their foils as the sounds of clacking fills the air. Unlike the other sessions that went on, this session is definitely different.

"They're being pretty fierce," one of the boys commented.

"Yeah," another girl commented, "I bet if they had real swords they'd be trying to kill each other."

"Wow, who could've guessed that their relationship ended up turning so bitter!" Came another comment from another girl.

"What happened between them to cause such hatred!?" A boy said next.

"Didn't you hear?" another girl said. "Makoto caught her taking LSD in his apartment."

Even over the intensity of their session, Makoto and Sekai can each hear those comments being made about them. While Sekai only felt annoyance that they believe that she and Makoto broke up over a supposed drug problem on her part, the idea of telling them the truth sounds far more unbelievable. For that, she tolerates it.

Yet on Makoto's part, he wanted to tell them that she had stabbed him to death. He even wanted to display his immortality as proof by stabbing himself. Except that new fear of his prevents this. Even if he did bend the truth by claiming that Sekai had only tried to stab him, he figures that it might somehow lead to their discovery of his immortality.

For this reasoning, he feels his concentration taking a beating. As it does, Sekai begins scoring more strikes upon him, further infuriating Makoto.

"Makoto," Irene warned, "don't lose your patience."

But that ends up being easier said than done as his strokes become wider and wilder, leaving him more open. Sekai feels her confidence grow with each stroke she lands and decides to twist the knife further.

"What's the matter, Makoto? Getting tired? Or maybe it has to do with me? I'm rather surprised that you're having difficultly with harmless little me. Seeing as to what you now are."

That last sentence causes a moment of panic in him as it seemed as if she had just announced to everyone that he is now immortal. With a growl he lashes wildly around with huge sweeping uncoordinated strokes like someone swinging around a club. Sekai keeps parrying the strokes then manages to land in strike after strike.

That is when Makoto swings too far and Sekai lunges in, jabbing him hard in the rib cage with the pommel of her foil. To her, it feels as if she had just struck steel. Everyone around winces as if they had all felt it. While it didn't hurt Makoto, he does lose his balance and falls. On the floor, he clenches his fists before rushing back up onto his feet. His movements hinting at violence about to be unleashed upon Sekai.

"Break!" Irene bellowed, causing everyone to flinch at the strength of her voice.

Makoto and Sekai remove their helms. His expression is of anger that includes gnashed teeth and shimmering dots for pupils and irises upon a sea of white. Yet Sekai bears an expression of simpering self-satisfaction. The rest of the club watch in unease. Kotonoha looks on in childlike bewilderment while Irene remains unreadable.

"It's a good thing Lamane-sensei ordered them to stop or else there might have been a fight," a boy said.

"All this because he caught her taking drugs in his apartment?" A girl said.

Makoto glances at the crowd as he clenches his fists. If they only understand what had happened. Yet while he is frustrated over it all, Sekai decides to play it up.

"I made one little mistake that I will never ever repeat again," she said innocently to Makoto, "and you won't forgive me for it?"

That seems to do it as Makoto trembles. His expression grows more intense and his eyes are now as pinpricks as he gnashes his teeth all the harder.

Irene firmly grips his shoulder, forcing him to relax, while she also fixes Sekai with a cold stare that makes the girl uneasy.

"Since it's already very close to quitting time," Irene announced, "everyone expect Makoto and Sekai are dismissed."

The other twelve leave as Kotonoha walks past them.

"I guess fencing's not as easy as it looks," Kotonoha said as she reaches them.

"Unlike the swordplay you see in animes," Irene said, "fencing emphasizes short shallow strokes instead of grandiose arching slashes. Short shallow strokes are easier to defend with, and even attack with too. But on to other things now. Makoto, why are you letting Sekai get to you like that?"

"Yeah, it's not like I can hurt you anymore," Sekai added in a mocking casual manner.

"It hurts up here," he growled with a firm tap of a forefinger at his temple.

"This is serious, Makoto," Irene said somberly. "If she were one of us then you could have been vanquished."

"I'm sorry, sensei, but this is just so difficult for me to deal with," he sighed as he brushes his hand through his hair.

"Of course, being stabbed to death by her will do that," Irene said apologetically. "But you are immortal and she is not."

"Neither is Katsura," Sekai countered. "And even though I'll grow old and withered, I'll still be able to live out my entire life in this city; all while keeping my name so that it'll be inscribed on a wooden sign at my family tomb after I die. You on the other hand, Makoto, will need to leave not only the city but the country too at some point in the future. Just like Irene-sensei will. And just like her, you'll be forever changing names as you move around. That also gets me thinking. Sensei, your name, Irene Lamane, that's not your real name, is it."

"No, it isn't. My name used to be Alpaida. But I haven't gone by it for most of my life because I've never cared for it. I also never had a surname either because I lived through a time when surnames had little relevance because of the low population density. I have gone by a multitude of different names and surnames, but the one surname I have used the most is the one I am using right now."

"Just how old are you, Lamane-sensei?" Kotonoha asked.

"A better question to ask me is how long have I been immortal. But I will answer twelve hundred and fourteen years old."

"Holy shit!" Sekai exclaimed.

To say that Irene looks young is an absolute generalization simply because she is biologically ageless. In fact, it is visually impossible to put a definitive age to her face; even though she does not wear any makeup, as is the case right now. But her eyes do give her the look of knowing far too much for someone of her "apparent" youth.

"My father," Irene next said, "was none other than Charlemagne, the Holy Roman Emperor."

"Wow, you were talking about your father in Western History class all along!?" Kotonoha marveled as she clasps her hands together. "No wonder you know so much about him! Then that means you're royalty!"

"How did your father react when he found out what you were?" Makoto asked.

"He never knew because he died at nine o'clock in the morning: fourteen hours, fifteen minutes, and possibly thirty-one seconds before I turned. We immortals will always be able to pin down the time of when we turned, down to the exact second; just as you will, Makoto."

"The moment before I woke up in a puddle of my own blood," Makoto said, "I had these weird sensations involving my senses and emotions. Did you have those too upon turning into an immortal, sensei?"

"Yes, I did. That marks the moment a pre-immortal becomes a full-fledged immortal. For those of us who are female, we stop menstruating from that moment forward. Although this proves that a pre-immortal girl can still have her periods that don't mean she's fertile. I should know this because I started having sex when I was only thirteen years old. And back in those days there was no such thing as birth control. But on to other things now . . . Makoto, do you feel scared that the whole world is going to find out about your immortality?"

"Y-Yes I do!"

"So do I and every other immortal that has ever existed, is currently existing, and is yet to exist. I have a theory about that and it goes like this . . . All living things have the need to survive and they will normally follow that need by never doing anything that will endanger their well-being. Bestow immortality and that need no longer becomes valid. Think of any mortal who's suicidal."

"Of course!" Kotonoha added brightly. "Anyone who feels they don't need to survive anymore end up frequently putting themselves into deadly situations without any regard for their own safety!"

"Exactly," Irene pointed out. "But that doesn't mean an immortal no longer feels concern toward the needs of others to survive. They can fear for a loved one's safety just as they had when they were mortal."

"But mental stability is also tied to the need to survive," Sekai added. "People with no need to survive become mentally unstable." Clearing adding that so as to befuddle Makoto.

"Normally that's true," Irene agreed.

"Then . . . what does this mean for us, sensei?" Makoto asked with unease.

"Relax, Makoto," Irene assured him, "our need for secrecy replaces our former need to survive. Why else are you afraid of others finding out? We immortals loathe putting ourselves into any situation that might expose our secret to others. Even with mortals who do know your secret, that fear in turn causes you to become uneasy over demonstrating it to them. Mark my words, you will feel reluctant to demonstrate it to either Sekai or Kotonoha, even if they ask you. But just as there are mortals who override their need to survive to save others, there have been immortals who have done the same thing in regards to their need for secrecy. And because we no longer have any need to survive, we no longer fear death either. If you should ever cross paths with another immortal who wants to vanquish you, you won't fear them."

"I know I should feel uncomfortable about that last part you said," Makoto mused as he looks sideways as if at something. "But I simply don't."

"Yeah, that's right," as Irene nodded. "You're also eternally fixed."

"Eternally fixed? What does that mean?"

"It means that whatever your core personality traits were up until you died are now forever set, like cement after it has hardened. If your core traits happen to include love, loyalty, and compassion, then you will always be that way. Even if you happen to have any lesser personality traits that contradict them, those contradictory traits can be easily overridden."

Makoto feels a sense of relief from that remark. It also makes so much sense because for quite some time after becoming immortal, he had felt this profound sense of rigidity deeply within himself.

"I bet you were also shocked to discover that you no longer have a bellybutton either," Irene next said.

"No bellybutton?" Sekai winced.

"Why is that, sensei!" Makoto interjected.

"Because it's a scar just like any healed gash or third-degree burn," Irene answered. "Otherwise we would still have them. I remember when I first turned into an immortal. I ended up taking every percaution so that nobody saw that I have no navel."

"When did you finally discover that you were an immortal all along, Lamane-sensei?" Sekai asked.

"One day, I accidently cut my hand on a pair of scissors and watched with both amazement and horror as the wound disappeared completely and almost instantly. I never felt any pain either, only tingling as it regenerated before my eyes. Then as more time passed, I began noticing that I was getting smarter and my memories sharper. I also began noticing that I could exert some strength whenever I wanted to, and my eyes and ears got a bit sharper whenever I thought about them. Eventually people started telling me about how I always looked so young for my age. I would just shrug it off, claiming that I couldn't look that young. But I knew that they were right and began fearing that it was only a matter of time before they all figured it out. Yet even then I never knew what I was . . . until that day."

There is a moment of silence as Irene sighs deeply. Her eyes taking on a heavy look of sorrow.

"I-It's okay if you don't want to tell us, sensei," Kotonoha interjected gently as she waves her hands slightly.

"No, it's okay, Kotonoha," Irene answered assuredly with a wave of her hand and a sad smile. Then begins telling her story. . . .


	6. Chapter 5

_Date: April 29, 854 AD_

_Place: Aachen, Lotharingia (the westernmost part of modern day Germany)_

_It is Sunday as Mass is being conducted in the Royal Church of Saint Mary's. A church of much significance because the corpse of Charlemagne is entombed there. Alpaida is sitting in one of the frontmost pews dressed in her Sunday best. Like all of the other women her hair is done up and covered._

_"I will now conclude this sermon by speaking about miracles," the archbishop addressed the congregation in a loud and clear voice, wearing the attire of his office which also includes a staff topped with a crucifix. "There are two types: the godly and the satanic! Those performed by either God or Satan! Satanic miracles are the most difficult to discern from the godly ones because the Devil always tries to mimic God's miracles perfectly! Satanic miracles can sometimes manifest even within the hallowed halls of the Church! And if the laity are not keen, they might be taken unawares by it . . . ! Such as is the case right now!"_

_This causes a ripple of murmuring amongst the congregation. Alpaida suddenly feels a wrongness in this whole situation._

_"Yes, a satanic miracle is being performed in here as I am speaking to you all right now!" the archbishop continued loudly as he raises his now grim voice to a shout, compelling silence. "In fact . . . it has been going on for a very long time . . . ! And that satanic miracle . . . is her!"_

_The archbishop ending with a bellow as he lays his staff atop Alpaida's head._

_The entire congregation goes into an uproar of gasps and shrieks. Those near her are quick to evacuate their seats to get as far away from Alpaida as possible, believing her to be carrying the plague or that she might even attack them. Everyone is soon on their feet, ready to flee through the large double doors at the moment of trouble._

_Alpaida feels as if she had been kicked in the stomach. For a moment, she is speechless as she can only gape back up at the archbishop. Her mind feeling as if it is trying to escape her head._

_That is when she is seized by a pair of soldiers and forced to stand. The archbishop calls for silence and soon gets it, with a few lingering whisperers who needed to be savagely shushed. King Lothair, or the Holy Roman Emperor as he likes to be referred to as, casually comes walking down the aisle with more soldiers in tow. Yet in spite of his deluded title, he is the grandson of Charlemagne; making him Alpaida's nephew (half-nephew to be exact since his father was only her half-brother)._

_He walks up to the front and faces the congregation._

_"Lothair, what is the meaning of this!?" Alpaida demanded as her hands are bound behind her back._

_"The meaning is this!" He proclaimed for all to hear while flaunting a scroll. "I have here a document about a woman named Almatrud of Vienne, a concubine to my grandfather! It states that on January the twenty-eighth in the Year of our Lord, seven hundred and ninety-four, she gave birth to Alpaida!"_

_He falls silent to let the congregation draw their conclusion. For a few seconds, they babble quietly amongst themselves over what that means._

_"That means she's sixty years old!" One of the men amongst them finally clamored in shock as he clasps what it meant._

_His outburst triggers a wave of gasps, along with looks of wide-eyed shock with pupils and irises becoming shimmering dots upon whiteness._

_"But she doesn't look that old!" One of the women squeaked._

_"She must be a witch in order to look that young!" Another one of the men shouted angrily._

_"Kill her!" Another woman shouted._

_"Burn her at the stake!" Another man shouted._

_The entire congregation begins shouting viciously for Alpaida's death as they shake their fists in the air. Their irises and pupils now as mere pinpricks gracing their sclera within intent scowls. The children are huddling close to their parents with terrified expressions. . . ._

". . . I was dragged to a dungeon where a large vat of holy water was lugged in and they dunked me into it," Irene continued somberly. "For the very first time I learned that I can't be drowned because they kept me submerged for a few minutes. They even tried to strangle me afterwards, but the results were the same as the attempted drowning. I was lashed, burned, and bludgeoned. They even attempted to skin me alive. But my inability to feel pain became more obvious to me; along with my boundless ability to regenerate my flesh very rapidly, and resist having my bones broken . . . "

_. . . .Alpaida is naked from the waist up with her scarlet tresses now hanging completely free to her waist, plastered against her very pale smooth skin. Drops of water run down her skin and constantly drips from her dress onto the stone floor. Manacles bind her wrists together and are in turn attached to a chain hanging from the ceiling directly above her head._

_Standing behind her is Lothair and the archbishop. They, along with the soldiers around Alpaida, are staring at her in shock after having witnessed the impossible._

_"Nothing!" Lothair gasped despondently. "Nothing can be done to her!"_

_"Aye, Lothair," the archbishop said ruefully. "This is irrefutable proof that she is indeed Satan's daughter! Why else is her hair so red!? Nor have a birth hole from where her umbilical cord was cut!? It is fortunate that the Church's influence has grown to such extent that we were able to weed out this satanic miracle, or else further woe might have fallen upon the Holy Roman Empire through her!"_

_"This is absolute idiocy!" Alpaida furiously stated back at them over her shoulder. "I'm no more in league with Satan than either of you! This is exactly why my father didn't want the Church to get too involved with the empire! He might have attended Mass and allowed it various freedoms, but he drew the line! But my good-for-nothing half-brother just had to be his only surviving legitimate son and allow the Church even more influence!"_

_"Silence, you Devil-haired whore!" The archbishop grated. "This world was created by God! Absolutely everyone and everything within it are completely subject to Him and none can keep His will from being done! Lothair's father was simply doing what God willed, and he did a lot of good for the Church! Far more than what your father had ever done! Louis the Pious will always be remembered as our most faithful and generous patron!"_

_Alpaida laughs sarcastically and quite loudly for a moment before stopping with a long-winded sigh._

_"And yet you all showed your gratitude by turning on him," she next jeered. "I was there when he was forced to publicly confess his sins and submit to Lothair's captivity for a year."_

_"Need I remind you of that appalling deed he had done to his own nephew, Bernard, for trying to break Italy away from the empire?" Lothair stated. "Instead of just having him executed, he had him blinded instead. Bernard died anyway after spending two days in agony. Then there was the time he had Bishop Theodulf imprisoned, who later died under the rumor of poisoning. And last but certainly not least was that I was originally going to succeed him until he married that Jezebel, Judith of Bavaria. She bore him a son and named him Charles then enticed my father to break his word. So my father got what he deserved."_

_"Well I won't argue with you there, Lothair," Alpaida shot back dryly, "because I had no love for the man. He was a fool, plain and simple. But what you need to understand is that the Church doesn't want powerful rulers for fear that they'll challenge their authority. Their subjects will then be forced to look to the Church for strength and guidance. So your father was merely their puppet. And sadly, so are you."_

_"No one can challenge God's will, you slattern!" The archbishop countered hotly. "Everything that happens in this world happens for the explicit purpose of serving His will! And it is His will for the Church to be the strongest institution in order to prevail against the gates of Hell and lead mankind into the Kingdom of God! Therefore, we absolutely cannot, must not, and will not put our faith in the flesh for it is corrupt! Kings and emperors are no exception to this rule as your father had so infamously proved! He preached virtue all while lusting after the flesh, infecting you and the rest of your sisters to seduce the godly men around his court! It was fortunate that Louis the Pious was there to take the throne and send all of you off to convents to stop that bastard-breeding behavior!"_

_"Then what's God's purpose for me being the way I am?" Alpaida snipped back. "I wasn't always this way! I only became this way forty years ago!"_

_"Not even the angels can delve His will," the archbishop continued piously. "Nonetheless, it is also His purpose that you answer for being touched by Satan!"_

_"And just how are you gonna make me answer for that?" Alpaida taunted. "It's obvious that anything you do won't even hurt me let alone kill me."_

_They just stare at her silently as if contemplating her punishment. That is when Lothair smiles coldly at her._

_"We'll be leaving now," he finally said in an equally cold sarcastic tone as he turns to leave, with the archbishop and an entourage of guards immediately following him. "In fact," he added slowly, almost whimsically, as he pauses for a moment to look back at her, "we won't be returning for you until the next morning. But you don't have to worry about being lonely. There will be men to keep you company . . . Lots of men . . . After all, you did keep company with a lot of men back when your father was still alive."_

_And with that said, they leave her alone with thirteen men now. For a minute nothing happens, until another man soon hurries in._

_"Ready?" His smile a giddy one as is his tone._

_In a flash, they are upon Alpaida. One of them undoes her bonds and the rest manually restrain her as they pinch, grope, grab, and fondle her. With some of them even roughly caressing her._

_"For a woman who's actually old enough to be my grandmother," one of the men said slickly as he squeezes her face tightly while leering into it, "you look very good."_

_They wrestle her to the floor as they begin ripping the rest of her clothes off._

_"Damn, but she's strong!" Another man marveled as he wrestles with her right arm._

_"Yeah, it's like wrestling with a man!" Another man agreed as he wrestles with her left arm._

_"How dare you treat me like this!" Alpaida screeched and sobs desperately as tears stream her cheeks from out of her now firmly shut eyes. "Don't you know who I am!? I am the daughter of Charlemagne!"_

_"One of his many bastard whores!" One of the men snarled deviously._

_Those thirteen men eventually grow in number. . . ._

". . . They had their way with me for all day and most of the night," Irene continued somberly. "I can actually remember seventy-two different men getting involved. And that's not including those who had more than one go at me. That's one of the problems with having a memory that perpetually grows sharper over time: you end up remembering every little detail, regardless if it's good or bad."

"That's horrible, sensai!" Makoto gasped empathetically.

"It got much worse after that . . ."

_. . . .Lothair along with the archbishop and a squad of soldiers are within a meadow surrounded by forest. An ox-drawn cart is there and a pair of soldiers is now pulling Alpaida out of it. She is wrapped in a linen sheet to the point that she is effectively encased, along with strong-looking binds tightly bounding her from shoulders to ankles. A portion is left as a hood that is pulled over her head._

_She is held upright by the pair at either side of her, who in turn pull her makeshift hood back to expose only her face. It is at that moment Alpaida feels the presence of someone, as if that person is inside her head. She distinctively feels it coming from a certain direction and attempts to turn her head toward the source somewhere out there amongst all of those trees._

_But that feeling soon disappears and her attention is next directed to a coffin between herself and Lothair and the archbishop. There are three soldiers standing to one side, two are holding the lid with nails protruding from it while the other holds a hammer. Next to grab her attention is a freshly dug pit just a little way back. There is a pair of wagons nearby, each attached to a pair of oxen and each fully loaded with a pile of dirt, showing that the pit is indeed very large and deep. Alongside it is a wooden crane made up of a series of ropes and pulleys that holds a huge stone tablet that looks to weigh at least half a ton aloft upon thick ropes. The rest of the soldiers are each holding a shovel._

_All at once, Alpaida's heart skips a beat as her irises and pupils shrink to grey pinpricks._

_"Don't do this!" Her voice now husky as tears stream down her face. "Please, I beg you! This is madness!" Her voice growing more hysterical._

_"This is God's will," the archbishop announced piously. "Alpaida, daughter of Charlemagne, you have been found guilty of consorting with Satan! Since you cannot be executed, you will instead be buried alive! And God willing, may you remain buried until Judgement Day!"_

_Alpaida's heart now seems to want to jump out of her mouth. Yet her expression is one of faint shock as if she can't believe what she had just heard. As she is being placed into that coffin, she now begins screaming and weeping hysterically while struggling violently to get loose._

_The archbishop leans forward as he next begins chanting in Latin over the din of her screams and pleas while making the sign of the cross over her with his staff. Upon finishing, Lothair gives the order and a soldier pulls the makeshift hood back over Alpaida's face as she keeps screaming for mercy. Needing a pair of soldiers to keep her steady, the pair holding her lid carefully places it over and the soldiers quickly pull their hands out so that the lid can be fitted on. What light there had been for her, now completely vanishes. Next comes the sound of hammering._

_Alpaida keeps on screaming. If she couldn't die by the methods they had used back in that dungeon, then there is no way that she will die in here either. They finish with their hammering, enabling Alpaida to listen to the hammering of her own heart in her ears this time. She next feels the sensation of being lifted and carried along before feeling the next sensation of being lowered._

_Finally comes the unmistakably loud yet muffled sound of the stone lid being fitted into place. Alpaida finally stops screaming. She isn't even crying for that matter as something inside her had snapped and all she is doing is silently lying there, sobbing softly as her mind becomes as blank as the blackness of the interior. Time seems to have no meaning anymore. . . ._

". . . How did you ever get out of there!?" Kotonoha gasped.

"Oh, I was dug up," Irene answered assuredly. "Eventually . . ."

_. . . .Alpaida awakens to the sudden sensation of someone inside her head, along with the feeling of her cheek being stroked. Her eyes shoot wide open as she jerks with a gasp and instantly realizes that she is inhaling fresh cool air, as breathing in hot stale air was the last thing she remembered before her awareness came to an end._

_She is startled by the dark-complexioned man kneeling alongside her as he stares intently into her face._

_"Easy, easy, easy, you're safe now," he quickly assured her as he pulls away while holding his hands up. "You're safe. It's okay." His accent also making him a southerner, as does his complexion._

_He is handsome with shaggy black hair and very dark, almost black, eyes. He seems young, yet his eyes bear the look of someone who knows far too much for someone his age. Moreover, that feeling seems to have vanished now._

_"W-Where am I!?" Alpaida gasped, more from relief than from fright._

_"We are in West Francia," the man answered. "In a city called Strasbourg. It is morning. My name is Alphonsus, and you are . . . ?"_

_"A-Alpaida," she answered weakly, "d-daughter of Charlemagne. Th-Thank you for rescuing me."_

_"So you're one of Charlemagne's daughters," he said admirably as he strokes his chin. "I met your father one time. He was an impressive man. Here, let me get this."_

_He takes out a dagger and started cutting the cords off her, even cutting the fabric in various areas. He is none too careful as he carelessly cuts skin in various places as she feels the blade painlessly puncturing her skin. The telltale tingling letting her know that those wounds are disappearing. Alpaida can only surmise that either he has no genuine regard for her safety or he knows something about her._

_Alphonsus finishes cutting, enabling Alpaida to now stand fully erect, revealing his height to be a couple of inches taller than her own. She keeps hold of the now shredded shroud around her while taking a moment to look around. The interior of the house is fairly well-furnished, but in a simple yet elegant manner that suggests Alphonsus to be a minor noble. Even his clothing suggests such a thing too._

_"I-I just felt you inside my head upon waking up," Alpaida finally said to him._

_"I know," he answered plainly. "And that was me you had felt just before you got buried alive."_

_He then points to an open door into another room. "You can go into my bedroom where I have a bath read for you. There are also some clothes laid out for . . . you."_

_His words die away as Alpaida simply lets the shredded shroud drop with a flurry of her hands, revealing her nude shapely alabaster body to him as she faces him fully. Her expression quite matter-of-fact._

_"Oh my," he said in a faint whimsical matter-of-fact tone as he eyes her over._

_"You are far from being the first man I have ever bared my naked body to," Alpaida said in a plain but humorous manner. She looks to his bedroom once again and steps out of the coffin, walking quite casually toward his bedroom. She even takes a moment to eye the coffin lid propped up to one side against a wall with its nails all bent from the lid being pried off._

_Once in his bedroom, Alpaida immediately notices the large wooden tub with steaming water coming up out of it. Along with a towel, washcloth, and soap nearby. This struck her as odd as there are no other servants around to do those things. This must mean that he is of rougher stuff than he appears to be. The clothes he mentioned are laid out for her upon his bed. It is a plain blue dress, an extra-long tunic actually, with yellow curls at the cuffs and neck, which look to be well above the collarbone. There are also underclothes for her to wear with them, along with a wide leather feminine belt and leather slippers. Nearby are a writing desk and a chair. A shiny piece of tin for a mirror is nearby. The windows have glass and there are curtains covering it. Oh yes, he is a noble all right since commoners cannot afford glass and have to make do with oiled paper and shutters._

_She takes a moment to peek out through the curtains. The sky is clear and there is a stone wall around the place as well._

_It is at that moment that something seems wrong. Why is she thinking about a much higher numerical value now? Every year on her birthday at some point in the night she suddenly learned of an increase in numbers, and without fail too. It had all started on her twenty-first birthday with the number one. On her next birthday at that exact time, it became two. Then three. Four. Five. All the way up to forty. And now it's sixty-seven._

_Then throw into this the dizzying fact that for the past forty years, she has lived with knowing about something that has something to do with seven men and seven women._

_Between not being able to see much and not knowing this knowledge she possesses, Alpaida decides to take that bath; needing to wash her hair first since it will be the most troubling to deal with, and needing to use the soap to do so._

_After getting cleaned and dressed, she finally returns to him and is once again struck by that sense Alphonsus gives her the moment she enters his presence. Then it seems to disappear once again._

_"It looks good on you," he commented._

_"How did you get me out of the ground without getting caught!?" Alpaida finally demanded as she walks up to him. She had been holding back on her questions beforehand._

_"I simply returned to your grave, dug it up, took the stone lid off, removed you, put the lid back into place, and buried it once again," Alphonsus simply explained. "Then I placed you into a cart, covered you over, and made my getaway. That was three days ago. And I didn't need to worry about getting caught because the people of Aachen were far too busy dealing with the Vikings."_

_"The Vikings!?" Alpaida gasped dreadfully. The Norse. Savages from the Northlands who raid the coastlines from their ships, and can even raid further inland because their ships are capable of traveling up the rivers. She remembers back to nine years ago when she heard about them laying waste to Paris. And just last year they attacked Tours, destroying the shrine of Saint Martin. "So the army wasn't very effective at defending the city? I guess Emperor Lothair must be hunkering down someplace or trying to bribe the Vikings."_

_"Emperor Lothair is already long dead," Alphonsus answered in a matter-of-fact tone as he folds his arms._

_Alpaida blinks a few times as she opens her mouth with a bewildered expression. Then it all finally dawns on her when she had not perceived it so from the moment she awoke._

_"I-I spent . . . m-more than a single night in the ground, d-didn't I," she said carefully without it meaning to be a question as her tone carries an undercurrent of demand._

_"Yes."_

_"How long was I in there for?"_

_Alphonsus is silent for a couple of seconds with a deadpan expression._

_"Twenty-seven years," he finally answered flatly._

_Alpaida gapes at him in silent shock for a moment. So that explains the number sixty-seven in her mind! That explains the whole set of numbers to begin with! It means that as each and every birthday comes, she will know an extra number to represent a year for how long she has been this way! Whatever way that is._

_"H-How is it possible that I still live!?" She finally blurted out hysterically. "I was drowned, strangled, burned, and mutilated but it didn't affect me! And now to learn that I have spent almost thirty years in a dreamless sleep without suffering any ill for it . . . !? Tell me, Alphonsus, what is going on with me . . . !? You clearly know something about me that I don't!"_

_"Oh that I do, Alpaida, that I do," Alphonsus answered assuredly. "You are immortal, just like me."_

* * *

**Note:**

**For more information about Charlemagne, and even his son, Louis the Pious, check out the Wikipedia and other sources.**


	7. Chapter 6

"He explained everything to me," Irene concluded. "And just like Makoto, his own immortality was triggered when he too was killed. It was in Carthage in one hundred and forty-six BC as it was being destroyed by the Romans. Alphonsus became my mentor and lover."

"Where is he now?" Sekai asked.

"On a warm clear day on July the fourteenth in the year nine hundred," Irene instead answered, "we were out traveling along a back road when we were confronted by an immortal man even older than Alphonsus. The man challenged us, or more specifically Alphonsus. I was warned to run away, but instead I only ran far enough to watch as Alphonsus dueled the man. It was a long duel . . . but the man proved victorious."

"So you ran away?" Makoto said curiously.

"No, I challenged him and I vanquished him. It was more by accident because my foot slipped when I was perfectly opened for him to stab me. He ended up overshooting his stab and I was quick to capitalize by stabbing him, then cutting through his neck. It was awkward for me at first, but I did it and experienced my first absorption of essence. I have lived these past twelve centuries wandering the world, taking on various identities and occupations that were only opened to women for those times. I've worn wigs and scorched my brows because red hair is hard to dye as it tends to turn green if not done properly. I have lived nearly all over the world, moving on an average of every ten years or so. I even crossed paths with three other immortals, all of whom wanted to vanquish me. A woman in eleven hundred, a man in fifteen ninety-two, and another woman in nineteen hundred. I will be forced to continue this way of life until I am vanquished."

"That is indeed a sad story, sensei," Kotonoha said somberly. "Do you still miss Alphonsus?"

"Every day, Kotonoha," Irene answered dryly as she slowly shakes her head slightly as she closes her eyes momentarily, "every single day. Yet I have gotten over his vanquishment. It was for the better really because I don't know if our love could have been like our bodies. The thing about mortals is that they will die at some point within a one hundred-year period. I have fallen in love with mortal men and have even been married twenty-five times, and had just as many lovers too."

"Did any of them ever know what you were?" Makoto asked.

"It was to the men that I ended up marrying that I revealed my secret to. At first it frightened them, but they ended up accepting it. They also managed to accept the fact that if they wanted to stay with me, they had to move around with me when the time came. Some couldn't take it and those divorced from me. But for those who lived out the rest of their lives with me, it always hurt when they died. My most recent marriage ended with the death of my seventy-eight-year-old husband in nineteen sixty-eight, after forty years of marriage."

"With all of us mortals dying off around you," Sekai said, "do you ever want to die?"

"There have been times that I resolved to allow myself to be vanquished by the next immortal that I meet. But whenever I crossed paths with those other immortals that I mentioned, I always took it back. One of the benefits to being immortal is that you won't wither with age. That is really what mortals fear: the aging process, not the actual death itself. You also get to wake up the next day wondering what's going to happen. Everything you take for granted today, I never once imagined could be possible. I hope we travel outside the solar system like in Star Trek, as I sometimes wonder if there are any alien immortals out there. Another benefit is the possibility of meeting people who will become famous like my father. I met Richard the Lionhearted, Joan of Arc, Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, Leonardo da. Vinci, William Shakespear, Beethoven, Napoleon. I was even the leading lady for Richard Wagner's play, Flight of the Valkyries. He was a big fan of my father."

"Wow, you sure met a lot of famous people, sensei!" Kotonoha marveled. "When was the first time you came to Japan!?"

"It was in 1871. Being a redhead really makes you stand out, especially when they learn that its natural. It got me an audience with the Meiji Emperor."

"You have a unique view of history, sensei," Makoto said. "Do you believe that things are getting better or worse?"

Irene hums over that as she gazes upward in thought before looking back to him to give her answer.

"I lived through a time when people cared very little about someone getting arrested on the flimsiest of evidence and tortured to extract a so-called confession. They even grew excited about up and coming floggings and executions, turning it into a family event as they took their children with them. They shrugged over the idea of men marrying twelve-year-old girls, or younger even. They also ignored children getting beaten, calling it discipline. Women's rights were a nonissue. And all this while those very same people went to Church every Sunday; vehemently condemned anyone, especially women, for having sex, getting pregnant, and having a baby all out of wedlock. They would've shunned homosexuals, with some of them going as far as to kill one of them and receive only a slap on the wrist for it. But in this time and era, it's all in reverse. The thing humanity has done is rearranged morality. Of course, I am taking it all with my people in context. Although it can also be applied to your people and others too."

There is a moment of silence.

"I'd love to talk some more," Irene said as she rose, "but you three must have things to do."

"That I do," Makoto answered as he stands, with Sekai and Kotonoha echoing his sentiments.

The three students bid their teacher a good day with a bow and leave.

* * *

As Makoto enters the apartment complex where he lives, a familiar person is in the porch to greet him.

"Hello, Makoto."

"Setsuna!?"

Kiyoura Setsuna is a short, humorously stoical girl who is Sekai's best friend. She also had a secret crush on Makoto. But she had to move to France and didn't want Sekai to know. Before leaving though, she lost her virginity with Makoto.

"What brings you back here!?"

"My father is on a short vacation and decided to come back home for a bit. May I come up to your apartment with you?"

"Uh, c-certainly."

Once up there, Setsuna sits upon one of the couches.

"I'll make some tea," he offered.

"Just a single cup."

Makoto goes to prepare a pot of water. Setsuna looks off in one direction and does a double take as she notices something in his room. She winces slightly in curiosity as she gets up to go and take a closer look. Upon reaching the doorway, she can now see a large dark stain on the carpet in there and walks over to it. She crouches to be closer to it and strokes the stained area. From her perspective, a large quantity of fluid must have been spilt in here, making her wonder if it were from a large paint can or something.

"Setsuna?" Makoto suddenly said, startling her.

"Oh sorry," she said. "I just noticed this large dark stain in here. What was spilt?"

"Oh, just a can of paint," Makoto lied casually. "Tea's almost-."

At that moment a growling rattling sound comes from the kitchen.

"That damn oven is acting up again!" Makoto growled as he hurries away. It never worked right, not since the day he was murdered and he still doesn't understand why. Upon reaching it, he attempts to turn it off when it makes a loud bang, knocking him backwards and jarring his thoughts for a moment.

The next thing he is aware of is the telltale tingling in his chest from a piece of the oven jammed into him.

Setsuna gapes in horror at him, not believing what she is seeing with her now pin pricked eyes. He looks up at her with an uneasy look. For a while, neither move nor speak.

"M-Makoto!" Setsuna finally managed to gasp as she kneels down alongside him. "A-Are you all right!?"

Again, Makoto doesn't say anything. He looks down at the object embedded in his chest and tears his shirt open. The wound still tingles as it tries to regenerate, but the piece of the oven is still in the way.

"What you're about to see will make you question your own sanity," he said grimly as he takes ahold of it.

He yanks it out, much to Setsuna's protest. She watches with ever increasing awe as what was a gaping wound shrinks and disappears completely in a near instance. Her expression is stoical, though her pin pricked eyes easily give her away.

"D-Did I j-just s-see-!?" Setsuna finally gasped.

"Yes you did, Setsuna," he interjected plainly and somberly as he rises, "what you saw was real. And I can explain why."

Makoto tells her everything that had transpired, concluding it with a return to that large dark spot. Setsuna stares down at the huge dark stain that his body can easily lie within, now understanding it to be a bloodstain. His blood.

"H-How is it that there can be humans who are actually immortal!?" She gasped.

"I don't know, other than there are fourteen of us, seven men and seven women. Always that number. We can sense each other and can only be killed by one of our own upon being stabbed by them then hacked in two, preferably beheaded. We absorb their store of essence, increasing our own, which further increases our mental and physical prowess."

"H-How do you know so much about this!?"

"There's a foreign teacher at our school named Irene Lamane. She came here a couple of months ago. In reality, she's a twelve hundred-year-old immortal and she's there because of me, and is teaching me sword-fighting skills."

"Then that means that there are people alive today who were born thousands of years ago!" Setsuna gasped.

"Yeah, I know," Makoto said reflectively. "And now I'm one of them."

"I-I think I'll be going now," Setsuna said diminutively. "There's Sekai who I want to see next."

"I understand. Just so that you know only Irene-sensei, Kotonoha, and Sekai know what I am. You do realize that no one else will believe you?"

"I know."

* * *

Setsuna arrives at Sekai's place, who is predictably bewildered to see her old friend standing before her and is quick to pull her inside.

"I just came from Makoto's place," Setsuna said as she removes her jacket and shoes.

"Then you must also know that we are no longer together," Sekai said. "And that he's back with Kotonoha."

"Yes, I do."

"W-Why didn't you tell me you were moving away!?" Sekai suddenly ranted as she grabs Setsuna by her shoulders and shakes her. "Do you have any idea how much that hurt when I was suddenly told the next day that you had moved away!?"

"It was hard for me to say goodbye to you," Setsuna droned, sadness tinging her tone.

"But why was that so!?"

Setsuna sighs deeply as she looks away for a moment. "It just was, that's all. Speaking of Makoto, I was over at his place when an accident occurred."

And she goes on to explain it.

"So now you know too!" Sekai gasped.

"Yes," Setsuna answered flatly before fixing Sekai with a stead gaze, "along with the circumstances that led him to be that way."

Sekai's eyes shrink as she gasps and shivers slightly.

"I never knew you had it in you," Setsuna droned on, disappointment tinging her tone. "Then again you were always an impulsive person who never took nonsense from anyone. I just figured that if Makoto had been an abusive guy, then I could've expected it."

"Oh, and like what that son of a bitch did to me wasn't abusive!?" Sekai snapped as she points firmly off to one side as if Makoto were standing there. "Breaking up with me and going back to Kotonoha was one thing, but he just had to go around dicking other girls first! I claimed pregnancy in order to make him stop, even though I did seem to exhibit some of the symptoms. Yet he still denied that I was such a thing from the start! He only went back to that ditzy whore after she had a mental breakdown! Then to add insult to injury, he texted me a message to go have an abortion, courtesy of Katsura . . . ! Texted me, not talked to me!" Then she groans while clasping her head as she tightly shut her eyes. "S-Something inside me just snapped!"

"Then be thankful that he wasn't a normal person to begin with," Setsuna admonished, "or else you would be doing some serious time in prison for murder."

"I almost wish to be a freak of nature like him!"

"So you'd be able to kill him? Makoto did explain a little of it to me."

"All I can really do is hope that he does cross paths with another immortal who wants to do away with him. Or better still, Irene Lamane is deceiving him and will end up vanquishing him. They disappear the moment they die, you know."

"Makoto did mention her. Twelve hundred years old, wow. The things she must have seen, heard, and experienced."

"Yep, she's a snow-skinned blood-haired ice-eyed freak. Beautiful too. I won't be the least bit surprised to learn about Makoto getting into her pants. She also claims to be the daughter of some emperor named Charlie Main."

"Charlemagne!?" Setsuna gasped while also correcting Sekai.

"Whatever."

"But do you ever regret what you did to Makoto?" Setsuna asked, wanting to put the subject back to him.

Sekai is silent for a moment as she folds her legs up against her chest and rests her chin upon her knees while staring straight ahead.

"As I was planning it and then did the action," she finally answered in a faraway manner, "I felt as if I had been in a trance the whole time. Then as I sat upon him and watched the life fade from his eyes, I snapped out of it and felt so dirty and horrified at what I had done. I got home and hid my bloodied clothing and the knife. I bandaged my hand from the cuts that I got from when my grip slipped upon the handle. I then showered and afterwards sat on my bed and pondered what I had done. I kept wanting it to be just a nightmare and wake up from it all. I began hoping that his murder never be solved. Then I got a text message that ordered me to come up to the roof of the school. When I saw who it was from, my first reaction was that he had survived, but just as quickly came to the conclusion that it had to be Kotonoha. Once up there, I was right to find her sitting there waiting for me. We talked and she knew that I had lied about my whole pregnancy. Finally, Makoto stepped in and . . . well the rest is pretty obvious."

"You must have been pretty shocked."

"I had to clean up in the girl's locker room back inside the school, then wash my panties out and wear them again in order to get back home. I couldn't sleep that night nor very well for quite some time after that."

"But still, do you actually feel bad about what you did to him?"

Once again, Sekai is silent as she stares back at her friend, weighing that question in her mind.

"No," she finally answered in a soft and serious tone.

"I see," Setsuna answered in her deadpan manner. "Then here's hoping that any man you ever get involved with never crosses you."

"I'm through with men," Sekai sneered. "I think I'll become a lesbian."

"It doesn't work that way, Sekai," as Setsuna gives her a sarcastic side-on look that involves black dots for eyes with prominent brows, and a large sweatdrop. "And even if you were one, that only means you'd end up murdering some girl for breaking your heart."

"Fine, celibacy then . . . But enough about me, let's talk about you now. How are things in France?"


	8. Chapter 7

As the months pass, Makoto still has trouble dealing with Sekai in Fencing. Always she keeps beating him, no matter how hard he tries. Irene can see what the trouble is, but she can't do anything about it.

Yet.

That morning, which marks the beginning of summer break, Irene is standing before the gate of the Katsura residency. She is dressed casually in blue jeans and a black tanktop that shows off her wiry form. She had informed Kotonoha of her presence and is waiting for her to come. The steel door opens and out rushes a little girl instead.

"Whoa, foreign-!" The little girl yelled with delight, only to stop dead in her tracks with a look of fright.

"Ah, your hair sucked all your blood out!"

"Kokoro, that's rude!" Kotonoha admonished as she is now standing in the entrance.

"Good day, Kotonoha," Irene said to her.

"Good day, sensei," Kotonoha answered back with a formal bow. "This is my little sister, Kokoro."

"Hello, Kokoro, my name is Irene Lamane. And this is quite natural," as she clutches a tress of her hair while crouching. "I'm not the only Westerner who has hair, skin, and eyes these colors."

"For a second there I though your hair had sucked all your blood out."

"Come inside, sensei," Kotonoha said.

They walk across the grounds.

"This is a very nice place you live in, Kotonoha," Irene said.

"Thank you, sensei. Do you want some iced tea?"

Irene agrees and they are soon sitting out on the patio at a table with Kokoro sitting nearby.

"I came here for a reason, Kotonoha," Irene said after taking a sip and placing her drink down. "Does your family own a cottage out in the countryside?"

"Yes they do, sensei."

"Is it in use or are you going to be using it?"

Kotonoha hums curiously as she looks upward while placing her forefinger against her chin.

"I don't think so," she finally answered. "Why, are you interested in it?"

"I want to take Makoto out there and train him hard over the summer break. You can come too since it is your place. Are you doing anything today or over the next month?"

"I'll need to ask my parents."

"You go do that."

In time, Kotonoha returns with her parents. They discuss the arrangement and soon Kotonoha is packing a large suitcase into the back of Irene's car. Irene in turn makes a call on her cellphone.

"Hello, Makoto? Everything's a go."

Irene and Kotonoha are soon driving out toward his place in Irene's car, which is a blue color.

"I'm gonna drop you off with Makoto to help him out," Irene said. "I got one more person to take. Actually, I haven't told her yet but I have a gut feeling she'll be coming along."

"You don't mean Sekai!?" Kotonoha gasped.

"Who else?"

"But why? Makoto has a very hard time dealing with her in Fencing. She always keeps beating him."

"Precisely, and I want him to get over her. Because if he doesn't, that can catch up with him."

"Catch up with him? How, sensei?"

"You might not understand it fully, Kotonoha, but Makoto might one day cross paths with another immortal at some point in the future. That immortal might no doubt want to vanquish him, especially if they're ruthless. Right now, he feels invincible so there's no real incentive for him to beat Sekai. And that's what makes it very difficult for him to overcome his issue with Sekai. Whoever that future immortal will be, or whatever the circumstances that lead them together, he won't be ready for them as he won't have the confidence to duel them. A confidence that cannot be fulfilled if he doesn't defeat Sekai."

"I'm still confused. Why should Sekai factor into all this? You still haven't explained why he cannot beat her."

"He still carries something for her. Granted it's only a speck but it's enough to interfere with him."

They reach Makoto's apartment.

"Oh and Kotonoha? Keep Sekai a secret for now, okay?"

* * *

Sekai is in her room still sound asleep with the covers pulled over her face, leaving only her hair exposed, when a soft knock is heard on the door.

"Sekai?" The soft voice belonged to her mother, Yoko, as she slowly opens the door. "Are you up?" She is an attractive woman with her long hair gathered into a ponytail at her nape, but with sidelocks hanging loose.

She is closely followed by Irene, who immediately taps Yoko's arm and gestures for quiet then winks. Normally, Irene is a no-nonsense woman, yet she is not entirely without humor; though she rarely indulges in mischief.

Irene silently walks over to the side of the bed. She next carefully takes hold of the edge of the blanket with both hands and slowly lifts it. She sticks her head underneath to be face-to-face with Sekai, who is still asleep as Irene judges after using her essence to enhance her hearing to listen to Sekai's breathing and heartbeat. Yoko grins as she covers her mouth with a hand to stifle a giggle. For a while nothing happens.

Within a dream haze, Sekai feels an odd presence and hot breath against her face.

"You awake?" Someone called. Their voice strikingly familiar. "Hey . . . !? You gonna wake up or do you need a kiss?"

In a flash, Sekai yelps as she jack-knifes out of bed with a look of fright and nearly falls out of it, causing Yoko to laugh. Sekai is wearing a green T-shirt and white panties.

"L-Lamane-sensei!?" Sekai slurred in shock. Her hair looking like a bird's nest and her expression bleary-eyed with shock. "Wha-What're you doin' here!?"

"I was having a conversation with your mother, and it turns out that you're not doing anything over the summer. What that means is that you can join me, Kotonoha, and Makoto out at Kotonoha's cottage for that time. So," as she rises and claps her hands together once, "get up, get ready, have breakfast, and pack a bag."

Sekai stares at her and blinks a couple of times with a stunned look, which involves large dots for eyes with a line passing through them and a large sweatdrop.

"Come on," Irene quipped in a humorously curt manner as she reaches over and rapidly slaps Sekai's shoulder a couple of times. "Time's a wastin'. Hop to it or else I'll pick you up as you are and carry you out to my car."

Sekai now growls as she frowns with large black dots for her eyes but crossed. Her frown suddenly turns upside down without her eyes changing.

"So Makoto's going to be there, eh? Well then," as she now gets up. "I guess I have no choice."

After an hour of preparations, Sekai is finally on her way as she takes a moment to take one more wave at her mother before getting in the car as Irene starts the engine.

"Okay, sensei," Sekai asked with a grin as she closes the door and starts strapping herself in. "What exactly is going on here?"

"You are going to help Makoto come to terms with his issues over you," Irene answered casually as she puts the car into motion.

"I knew it . . . ! So just what are these issues he has with me?"

"Ever notice how he cannot defeat you? Well it has to do with the fact that he still feels something for you."

"Oh he does, does he? Well then, I guess he has a serious problem."

"Yes indeed, because it can get him vanquished by some other immortal in the future. Though it's not like you really care."

"What was your first clue?" Sekai replied with a sarcastic frown.

"Whether you intend to or not," Irene said dryly, "you are going to serve my purpose. And my purpose is to break his block."

"And what if I don't want to cooperate?"

"The simple fact that you are willingly sitting in here next to me just means you want every opportunity to spite Makoto."

Sekai grumbles as she leers at Irene then looks ahead.

"Your little plan is still gonna fail," Sekai next said flatly as she continues looking straight ahead.

"Oh, and why is that?"

"Because I've known Makoto ever since middle school," Sekai casually gloated with a smirk. "I know his weaknesses: indecisiveness and the desire for acceptance. He's prone to manipulation, something that makes him unable to commit. Whenever he did assert himself, it always backfired because he also lacks a proper backbone."

"You clearly know him far better than I do, so I do not doubt your knowledge of him . . . But . . . you're not factoring in what you did to him. You know what I mean, Sekai." Irene's tone now icy over that last sentence.

"What does that have to do with anything? Other than he came back from the dead because he was meant to become immortal."

"If someone were stabbing you to death, how do you think you would feel at that moment? What thoughts would be running through your head?"

"I would be in intense shock and horror, and my life would be flashing before my eyes."

"You're personality would be broken as you lay dying. As your life slips away, you won't be thinking anything casual and will think only of either contentment or regret. You wouldn't be indecisive. Now, throw into this the fact that I once told you about us. That we are eternally-fixed. Our core personality traits won't change. In other words, Makoto's indecisiveness was broken almost the instance before he died. And now he's no longer indecisive."

Sekai frowns at Irene over that explanation. It actually makes sense because ever since he came back from the dead, he seemed different. More thoughtful. More confident. Less . . . indecisive.

"I still say there's some indecisiveness left in him," Sekai answered curtly with a haughty expression as she stares back out the windshield once again. "Why else is he unable to defeat me? And if what you say is true about being eternally-fixed, then he will have it for eternity."

"We will just have to see if you're right," Irene said dryly. "But you're forgetting that I have centuries of life experience."

Irene and Sekai arrive at Makoto's apartment complex. They wait outside near the car for them as Irene phones Kotonoha. Soon, Kotonoha is emerging from the apartment with Makoto who has a dufflebag in hand. Needless to say, he is not pleased with Sekai's presence as it becomes apparent to him.

"What is she doing here, sensei?" Makoto said curtly with a glare at Sekai.

"She is going to be spending the summer vacation with us out at Kotonoha's cottage," Irene answered.

"What!?" Makoto exclaimed.

"This is something that you have to deal with, Makoto," Irene stated. "Now let's get going."

Reluctantly, Makoto gets in with them, with Sekai riding shotgun once again.

"So where exactly is this place, Kotonoha?" Sekai asked as she is doing up her seatbelt once again.

"It's a two-hour drive south of here," Kotonoha answered as she too is doing up her seatbelt. "A simple cottage where we will have some privacy. It's a simple route to follow."

Irene starts the engine and they are on their way.

They are driving down the highway. The silence in the car is heavy due to the atmosphere of animosity between Sekai and Makoto.

"When did you start driving, sensei?" Kotonoha then asked to break the tension.

"Shortly after the death of my last husband back in nineteen sixty-eight. Up until around that time, there was a general feeling that it was inappropriate for women to drive cars; even though there were some women who had been driving even earlier than that."

"You know," Sekai began curiously, "up until modern times, women didn't have much freedom. How did you manage to function throughout those centuries?"

"Keeping a very low profile helps, and being married too; if you are willing to share your secret with your husband. But most importantly, keeping a low profile. Part of which also includes disguising myself as a man at times."

The trio are silent for a moment as they blink in unison over that mental image.

"But still," Sekai then said, "it must've been an awful time to live in back in those days."

"Well, you are right about that much," Irene answered. "But it did have a silver lining to it."

"Silver lining?" Sekai sneered.

"Even though being a woman got me treatment only befitting for a minor, women were generally held in less suspicion than men."

"I guess reality is not as black and white as we like to believe it to be," Makoto said.

"You got that right, Makoto," Irene agreed.

Irene turns the radio on. She already has a CD in it and some song starts playing.

"This is an interesting song," Irene said. "I'm gonna sing it in Japanese."

The song begins and so does Irene. Her voice is melodious, haunting, and assertive to match it. The type of vocals one might expect from someone who bears the ravages of time in her soul.

_Promise that you always will._

_Keep candles lit on the windowsill._

_You know I'll be coming home._

_You know I never wanted to go away._

_But what am I supposed to say._

_When I hear the sounds of the trumpets call._

_Who says,_

_All is . . . all is . . . fair in . . . fair in . . ._

_All is fair in love and war._

_All is . . . all is . . . fair in . . . fair in._

_All is fair in love and war._

_Your pictures kept close to my heart._

_Letters all but fall apart._

_Each night I read them over again._

_You know I never wanted to go away._

_But what am I supposed to say._

_When I hear the sounds of the trumpet call._

_Who says,_

_All is . . . all is . . . fair in . . . fair in . . ._

_All is fair in love and war._

_All is . . . all is . . . fair in . . . fair in . . ._

_All is fair in love and war._

_You know I never wanted to go away._

_I swear._

_I swear._

_It's war._

_All is . . . fair in . . . love and . . . war._

_All is . . . fair in . . . love and . . . war._

_All is . . . All is . . . fair in . . . fair in._

_All is fair in love and war._

_All is . . . All is . . . fair in . . . fair in._

_All is fair in love and war._

_All is fair, all is fair._

_All is fair in love and war._

_All is fair, all is fair._

_All is fair in love and war._

The song finishes and so does Irene.

"You sing with such majesty, Lamane-sensei," Kotonoha said respectfully. "Yet sadly."

"What is the name of that song?" Makoto asked.

"It's called, Love and War, by a band named Drowning Pool."

* * *

**Note:**

**Go to Youtube and type in the following: Love and War, School Days. That song seems to fit the anime so well.**


	9. Chapter 8

The time finally comes.

"We're coming to the turnoff, sensei," Kotonoha said, "so be ready to turn onto a left road, starting now."

Irene slows and turns onto that specific road. She follows more instructions from Kotonoha until they come upon a dirt road and turn onto that. They drive in a little further before they come upon a metal bar for a gate. Kotonoha gets out to unlock it, but she needs Irene's help to open it. They eventually come to a small sharply-peaked hill which Irene parks against and get out to retrieve their luggage.

"It's down that trail and across a bridge," Kotonoha said.

They come upon a tether bridge. Yet that bridge looks far from being fragile as it is composed of steel cables with plastic mesh for siding and thick steel mesh for flooring. The cables are firmly set into miniature pylons on either side of the bridge, which looks capable of surviving a typhoon.

Once across the bridge, they finally arrive at the cottage in question. It is a simple two-story building done in traditional Japanese style.

"Nice place," Sekai mused.

"We would come out here during the summer," Kotonoha said as she now holds the key.

They enter the cottage to find the layout to be quite cavernous as the upper floor consists of only a balcony as a set of stairs lead up to it. There is a kitchen nook while the bathroom, washroom, and another bedroom are the only three other rooms in the house.

"Welcome to the house of pain, Makoto," Irene proclaimed whimsically from up in that balcony. "Mental pain. This is where we get more intense in your sword skills. It is in here that you will come to know intensity like you have never known it to be."

"But where does Sekai fit into this?" Makoto asked.

"You'll see. First of all, there's a king-size bed up here."

"So?" Sekai asked.

"So," as Irene now descended the stairs, "two guesses who my bed mates are going to be. And one of them is not Makoto because it's only fitting that he gets that other bedroom, seeing that he's the only male amongst us."

Kotonoha blinks innocently while Sekai groans as she makes a tired frown with her pupils and irises a little smaller to emphasis her sclera.

"Oh, this oughta be fun," Kotonoha chirped with a close-eyed smile.

"Lucky you," Sekai next growled at Makoto with that expression. "Or maybe not," as she suddenly grinned with a raised eyebrow while stroking her chin with her thumb and forefinger. "You're gonna be sleeping all alone in that room with three females up above you, all sharing a bed. Bet you're gonna have trouble sleeping tonight and won't help but make a mess in order to get some sleep."

Makoto blushes.

"Oh, so it must be true if you-," Sekai taunted.

"Okay, let's get serious now," Irene finally interjected with a clap then rubs her hands. "Makoto, Sekai, I have your uniforms."

Upon receiving them, there is an obvious difference between them.

"This is my uniform, sensei!?" Makoto asked as he holds up a pair of dark-blue bicycle shorts.

"Yes it is."

"But why do I get this when Sekai gets a fencer's uniform?"

"Because she's not one of us. And you should understand by now that there's nothing that she can do that can even remotely hurt you. Besides, I'm not gonna be wearing one either."

They each change into their respective outfits, with Irene's outfit consisting of a powder blue sports bra and bicycle shorts.

Irene next retrieves her own sword. The scabbard is of black leather and the gold-colored hilt is long enough for two hands. She removes it to reveal a gladius with a shiny two-foot long double-edged blade. That blade is razor sharp with a point that is seemingly absolute.

"This sword," she began as she skillfully twirls it, "is roughly a hundred years older than me because it once belonged to Alphonsus."

"Wow, it's in such good condition!" Kotonoha marveled.

"It is, isn't it," Irene answered with a touch of pride as she holds it aloft at a vertical alongside herself while staring it over as she shifted angles. "It's forged from steel that would come to be known as Toledo steel, because Alphonsus was one of the first men to pioneer the forging of such steel."

"Oh, you mean like keeping the metal in a semi-molten state and folding it over and over again?" Kotonoha asked. "Samurai swords were also made that way."

"Yes," Irene answered, clearly understanding that Kotonoha is not the empty-headed girl she makes herself out to be. "Okay, Makoto," as she approaches him, "This is the first thing that I want you to understand."

She suddenly lunges at him with the reflexes of a cat, stabbing deeply through his torso and just as quickly removes her blade. Makoto is still perfectly aware of his surroundings. But. . . .

"Try to move," she said.

Nothing. He can neither twitch nor blink, let alone even utter a sound for that matter.

"What's wrong with him?" Kotonoha asked.

"This is the freezing that I had once explained. It lasts for ten seconds. Notice the wound not regenerating?"

Makoto suddenly flinches as he gasps. The wound in his gut begins to rapidly disappear.

"I-I couldn't move any part of me!" He gasped. "I-I couldn't even breathe!"

"That is what it means to be frozen," Irene said, then next holds her sword up. "Here's something else that you must understand too, Makoto."

All of a sudden a soft white glow envelopes the sword from the tip of the blade to end of pommel.

"Wha-What is that!?" Makoto gasped.

"What's what?" Kotonoha asked.

"What do you mean what!? That glow around her sword!"

"What glow?" Sekai asked with an annoyed tone. "I don't see any glow around it?" Kotonoha agrees with her.

"But-!"

"Only immortals can see it," Irene interrupted.

"So why is it glowing then?" Makoto asked.

"It's because I made it glow. It's like flicking on a switch so it'll stop the moment I want it to, drop it, or if I get frozen. That glow causes any free wielding object that contains iron to mimic our skeleton."

"So that means . . . ?"

"It's effectively indestructible now."

Without warning, she chops him across the neck using both hands on her hilt, delivering a blow so powerful that he goes flying like a ragdoll. He feels the blade sliding over his vertebrae after having cut through his soft tissue like wet toilet paper. His skeleton, however, reacts to the blow with resiliency and hardness instantly greater than the force it's being subjected to. Normally, the blade would either crack or break with the edge getting chipped, but since the glow around it is also causing it to instantly react like a mobile immortal's skeleton, it's resiliency and hardness is now greater than his skeleton; which in turn is causing his skeleton to instantly react with greater protection; which in turn is causing the blade to instantly react with greater protection.

The result is a moment of infinite resiliency and hardness in both immortal bone and enhanced metal, causing no sensation in neither Makoto's vertebrae nor Irene's hand as the inertia is being effectively trapped in both mystified solids. This is considered to be scientifically impossible; especially if either Makoto or Irene end up subjecting their own selves to a super corrosive acid or seemingly infinite heat and actual survive it without deterioration or scorching.

Makoto had been standing near one end of the room, but he lands near the wall on the other side, then continues skidding until thumping loudly into it. He feels the tingling throughout the side of his neck and feels what should have been a mortal wound vanishing. He slowly stands once again as the wound is now only a couple of seconds away from being no more. Only a bit of blood smears his neck now.

"That's still really creepy," Sekai noted with a wry expression.

"Sekai, Kotonoha, come over here for a moment," Irene said to them.

They do so and Irene once again stabs Makoto. Only this time without a glow surrounding her sword.

"Push him over," Irene said to them.

They do so. Or that is, they try to do so.

"I can't budge him!" Sekai grunted.

"Me neither!" Kotonoha agreed.

"But he can still be lifted," Irene said.

This prompts the girls to lift Makoto, finding that his feet readily clears the floor before they put him down once again. Makoto unfreezes.

"Wha-What just happened!?" He demanded.

"You were locked to the earth," Irene answered. "It's what happens to us immortals when we're frozen. We become very difficult to push over, yet we can still be lifted."

"One more thing that I want to show you about being immortal," Irene said as she makes shooing motions to the girls, making them get well away. Makoto sighs as he knows that she is going to freeze him once again to display something else.

As he had predicted, she stabs him again. In a flash, she crouches and effortlessly chops his legs out from underneath him just above the knees, only this time without the glow surrounding her sword.

His severed legs vanish instantly and he falls to the floor like a statue.

"Wha-What happened to his legs!?" Sekai gasped.

"They were vanquished," Irene said. "That's what happens when a piece of tissue is cut from a frozen immortal. If I had chopped him in half anywhere between his crown and groin, he would've vanished and that would've been the end of him."

"B-But what about his legs!?" Kotonoha pleaded.

"Wait and see," Irene assured her.

Sure enough when Makoto unfreezes, both he and the girls watch in amazement as new legs begin growing back at a rate of one cubic inch per second. Roughly half a minute later, he is able to stand upon those new legs, minus toenails.

"I used the same amount of strength chopping your legs as I did when I chopped you across the neck," Irene explained. "That strength by the way was the result of using all of my essence. And chopping through your legs did not require the glow to enhance my blade. Therefore, unless either I or another immortal skewers you, you are in absolutely no danger from anyone nor anything."

"Ah . . . I-I see now," Makoto sighed. "But didn't you also once say that even poking your finger into me could freeze me too?"

Irene responds to his question by casually pressing the tip of her left forefinger against his chest in a space between his ribs. Within a single second, she punctures him and pushes her finger all the way up to the base knuckle. The girls gape at this demonstration. Once again, Makoto is frozen for ten seconds.

"You're clearly a lot stronger than we suspected, Irene-sensei!" Sekai exclaimed.

"That's because I was augmenting my strength by concentrating," Irene answered as she pulls her finger back out.

"If you can do that," Kotonoha said, "then why learn how to fight with a sword?"

"Because it takes a tremendous amount of strength in order for an immortal to puncture flesh with just their finger. I had to use all my essence in order to effortlessly do that. So unless an immortal has an enormous amount of essence, they won't be able to do that. Besides, there's also the advantage of wanting to be able to reach your opponent without getting too close to them where they might grab onto you to do harm. Swords evolved from knives when someone wanted to have an advantage over their opponent. A longer blade enables a person to attack their opponent without getting too close to them."

For a moment, Irene falls silent as she looks at Makoto, who finally unfreezes.

"Okay, Makoto," she began as she hands him her sword, hilt first. "I want you to try and make that glow appear."

He takes it, finding it to be heavier than it appears to be, and stares at the blade intently.

"It's simple," Irene continued, "just imagine a glow surrounding that blade."

Makoto imagines such a glow and suddenly it appears.

"I did it, sensei!"

"Now just imagine it gone."

He does so and it disappears. To quickly get the hang of it, Makoto starts flicking it on and off as if he were playing with a light switch. Irene next tells him to simply drop it while keeping the glow and he does so, being certain to catch it with his other hand on the way down. To him and Irene, the glow disappears as fast as it loses contact with his palm.

"Okay now," Irene next said in a soft assuring tone. "I want you to freeze me."

"Wha-What!?" He gasped as he stares down at it.

"Oh this is gonna be good," Sekai drawled with a smirk.

Makoto stares down at the sword in bewilderment then back up at Irene, or more precisely her stomach since it is the most exposed.

"S-Sensei . . . ! I-I . . . !"

"It's okay, Makoto," Irene said softly as she gently clasps his shoulder. "I trust you."

Makoto feels humbled over this revelation as he slowly lifts the blade and points it at Irene's stomach. She doesn't change her position as she just allows her hands to hang down by her sides. A small comforting smile is on her lips and her eyes show a glint that is meant to put him at ease.

He takes a deep breath and holds it for a moment while tightening his grip upon the handle as he presses the tip firmly against Irene's stomach. He puts his other hand on the end of the pommel in order to put extra pushing power into it. There is no glow surrounding it as he won't be needing it. For a second, he does nothing.

Then with a grunt as he exhales, he firmly pushes it through her stomach with all his might, running the blade all the way up to the hilt. That blade does not even reach a third of the way before he feels what can only be best described as a tube getting jammed into him, seemingly extended from Irene.

He pulls the blade out and Irene does nothing. She is now effectively frozen, this he knows.

"Chop her head off, Makoto!" Sekai taunted with a smirk as she curls her fists up to her chin. Her eyes now just glistening dots with her furrowed brows prominent. "Go for it! Take her essence and become more powerful! Go on, what're you waiting for!?"

"Shut up the hell up!" Makoto blasted. His irises and pupils like dots in a sea of white. Already he had been feeling uneasy about what he had just done. And now to have Sekai egg him on with those words, is making his unease grow even more intense. For the briefest of instances, he does flirt with the idea of vanquishing her. Then just as quickly crushes it. He now wants Irene to unfreeze as soon as possible.

"Naa, you're just too weak to take her head off," Sekai continued to taunt with that same expression as her fists are now down by her side. "That and you have witnesses."

Makoto glowers at her with gnashed teeth, now feeling tempted to stab Sekai instead.

"It was just like I was telling sensei when we were on our way to pick you up," Sekai continued haughtily. "You're indecisive. That's why you're such a weakling. Even if you are immortal."

"Sekai!" Makoto slowly grated as a warning.

That is when he feels that feeling disappear from him, almost as if it had been removed. In that same instance, Irene clasps his arm, making him feel relief and is quick to return her sword.

"You do realize that I wasn't blind nor deaf while I was frozen," Irene said to Sekai. "Now then," as she casually walks past and up to a case she had brought in. She opens it and takes out two fencing swords, one a standard foil and the other a sword in a black leather scabbard.

"This is yours for now, Makoto," handing the foil to him. "Just be certain to make it glow . . . And this is also yours for now, Sekai." Handing the sword to her. Sekai pulls it out to reveal a narrow blade with one side that is definitely sharp and comes to a point. It is an epee.

"Okay now this is what I was so looking forward to," Sekai said with delight as her eyes are now as large crossed dots with a furrowed brow while holding the epee aloft, vertically. "I am going to love carving you up, Makoto. I'll be just like old times." Saying that last sentence just as her eyes become solid white with her furrow more intense while a glint flashes in the outer corner of one of her eyes at the same time a sheen travels up the blade.

Makoto grits his teeth in frustration.

"Aw, what's wrong, Makoto," Sekai taunted. Her eyes now back to being black dots with a lazy expression. "Afraid that an immortal boy is going to get his ass whupped by a mere mortal girl?"

"Don't get cocky, Sekai! You might have gotten me when my guard was down back at my place, but you won't have that chance ever again!"

"Let's just get this show on the road," Sekai sneered and puts her helm on then readies her stance, prompting Makoto to get ready as well as he makes the stance.

Irene stands between them, but out of their way, with her hand raised to make the chopping motion that will signal the start of the match.

"And . . . go."


	10. Chapter 9

Makoto jabs at Sekai, but she is quick to parry and stab him in the bicep of his left arm. As always there is no pain, but the temporary severing of muscle tissue does hamper his effectiveness for the moment, forcing him to fall back and stay out of her reach. Once his wound finally disappears, he goes on a strong offensive as he comes at Sekai thrusting and striking. She stands her ground and continues blocking and parrying each of his attacks as Makoto's swings become ever wilder and less controlled.

Irene momentarily tightens her lips then slowly shakes her head while Kotonoha merely watches passively.

That is when Sekai turns the tables on him and begins pushing her own attacks, which are more controlled with none of the wild swings associated with anger. Makoto is forced to go on the defensive now and back away as the effort of trying to keep up with her attacks increase. He does not want to have the embarrassment of getting skewered by her once again.

"You are absolutely pathetic, Makoto, you know that?" Sekai jeered. "If Katsura has any sense in that pretty little head of hers, she'll leave you."

"Shut up!" Makoto shouted while trying to keep up with her attacks. "Kotonoha is a very forgiving girl, unlike you!"

"All that means is you get another chance to break her heart, just like you broke mine," Sekai snapped as she effortlessly keeps up the pace with Makoto. "But hey, look on the bright side," her tone now sarcastic. "You get to screw all the girls you want now without consequences. No pregnancies, no venereal diseases."

"I'll only feel emptiness," Makoto suddenly said in a surprisingly calm manner. "Just as I had before I took Kotonoha back."

"Oh is that so? Well now, you're going to feel it again after Kotonoha dies. And you'll feel it for eternity."

Makoto feels his concentration breaking, causing him to increasingly go on the defensive, which begins faltering. Sekai grows bolder and more vicious as she repeatedly stabs and slashes him from head to toe. The sound of his flesh being repeatedly punctured is heard clearly. Makoto feels overwhelmed by the barrage of attacks.

Sekai slashes him across the eyes, causing blood and eye fluid to gush forth and soak his cheeks. Makoto drops his sword while crying out as if in pain and plants his hands over his ruined eyes. Already he can feel them tingling, so he understands that it's not permanent.

Sekai takes the opportunity to trip him, causing him to fall upon his front. She is quick to stand behind him.

"You're despicable!" Her tone now one of contempt instead of what had been anguishing rage, then stabs him through the back.

Sekai expected him to roll over onto his back and sure enough, he does so; even though Makoto realizes what will be coming next as he next feels Sekai straddling him. His eyes are now halfway complete, but he is yet to see through them.

"Wanting happiness only for yourself," Sekai berated contemptuously this time as she holds her sword high, "with Katsura!"

And she stabs him again. And again. And again. And again.

Sekai finally stops, keeping her blade stuck in him as she rests upon it while staring down at Makoto. His eyes are now fully regenerated with pupils and irises as shimmering dots of anger, further emphasized by the blood and eye fluid smearing his cheeks.

She removes her helm, revealing her gloating expression.

"Did that remind you of the last time we were together, Makoto?" Sekai crooned mockingly. "Did it!?" Quickly twisting her blade for emphasis while gnashing her teeth. "Hey, Katsura, that's how it happened," she next taunted with a simpering smile and brief leer at her before fixating her attention back down at Makoto once again. "And you know what he was doing as I was sticking him like a pig over and over again . . . ? Nothing!" Twisting the blade quickly in the other direction with a gnashing of her teeth. "Absolutely nothing!" Twisting the blade in the other direction with another gnashing of her teeth.

"But why?" As Sekai leaned over him. Her tone now tender, almost pleading. Yet at the same time, mocking. "Why didn't you fight back, Makoto . . . ? Why didn't you fight back, huh . . . ? You did have a moment of opportunity to put up a fight when I first stabbed you because I hesitated for those few seconds . . . Even with a gut wound, you still should have been able to overpower me."

"But you did nothing except fall on the floor," as contempt saturated her tone and she leans closer over him while twisting her blade back and forth over and over again, "moaning and groaning in agony as you tried to crawl away from me like a frightened little boy."

Makoto only glowers back up at Sekai. Throughout the jeers and taunts, he just silently lies there with his arms stretched out from his sides. Unlike before when he was being overwhelmed by pain and terror, it is only anger that he now feels. Anger that keeps increasing as his shrinking pupils and irises show, along with his gnashed teeth.

"But it just so happens that I really do know why," as Sekai slowly straightens while pulling her sword out of his gut once again, causing a sucking smacking sound to be made. She slowly raises it once again. "It's because you felt _ashamed_!" Stabbing him once again for emphasis and raising it once again to stab him. "That's right, _ashamed_!"

Sekai once again begins stabbing him over and over while punctuating each stab with the following words.

"You . . . were . . . so . . . ashamed . . . of . . . your . . . self . . . that . . . you . . . believed . . . that . . . you . . . deserved . . . to . . . die . . . ! You . . . are . . . nothing . . . but . . . a . . . coward!"

Stabbing into his heart on that last word and quickly twisting the blade for emphasis.

"Okay, Sekai, that's enough," Irene said curtly as she lays hands upon her, one upon her nape and the other upon her hands, and pulls her off Makoto, using a bit of her essence to augment her strength.

Makoto, now trembling violently while softly sobbing, slowly rises to his feet while still crouching with his head hanging. His face hidden within a shadow so that only his gnashed teeth and one of his eyes can be seen. That eye is now a solid white with a sinister sheen. His other wounds have since disappeared, with his most recent one in his heart now almost gone. His tears start dripping onto the floor, along with blood and eye fluid.

"You," he hissed slowly and venomously, before looking up at Sekai. His face twisted from rage as his eyes are in a sea of white with tears flowing down his cheeks, diluting a trail of blood and fluid down his face.

"You!" As he lunged for Sekai with a shriek with fury.

Instead, he only receives Irene's open hand against his chest, causing the slap to echo throughout the cavernous interior. In that instance, the air left his lungs in one gasp just as he goes flying backwards like a ragdoll. He flies for about twenty feet before landing and sliding the rest of the way to bang loudly into the wall. Despite having witnessed Irene send Makoto flying across the room from a chop to the neck, or stabbing him deeply through his chest with a mere finger, the girls are still in awe over how she had managed to casually fling him across the room like that.

Makoto lies there for a moment with a pained look borne from mental pain. He feels his heart tingling as it had actually ruptured from the force of the impact. He finally inhales and begins sobbing, which quickly turns to soft crying as he covers his eyes and turns over, huddling into a fetal position.

He next feels a gentle touch on his head and looks to see Kotonoha kneeling over him with an empathetic look. Irene is alongside her, yet her look is severe. Sekai is further back staring at him with a simpering smile as she slowly shakes her head.

"If you were only a mortal who managed to survive," Irene said in a tone that hints silk over steel, "you'd qualify for my empathy."

"I-It's so hard having to f-face up to her like that, sensei!" Makoto croaked with an exhausted and pained expression.

"You are an immortal," Irene continued in that tone, albeit a little louder, as she points at him. "Yet you act as if Sekai is beyond you."

"Then I wish I wasn't immortal!" Makoto snapped.

"I once wished the same thing myself long ago. Now up. I want to demonstrate something to you. But first, go wash your face."

Makoto does so in the washroom, then later returns with his face now clean. Irene is now holding another standard foil that she had retrieved from that case.

"Sekai, let's do this," she said as she gets into her stance, prompting Sekai to put her helm back on and mimic the stance.

Makoto and Kotonoha watch them dual for a time before Irene finally calls for a halt.

"Now it's our turn," Irene said to him. "But not before I give you something." As she turns away and returns to that case once again and takes out another sword, this one with a pearl white two-handed hilt and brown leather scabbard.

"This is for you," she said as she presents it to Makoto.

He takes it and unsheathes it to show that it's also a gladius with a two-foot long blade.

"Whoa, th-thank you, sensei!"

"Okay then," Irene said as she makes her sword glow while gracefully twirling it around. "Let's begin."

Makoto makes his sword glow as they take their stance, ready to dual.

"This oughta be interesting," Sekai mused.

Makoto and Irene duel. For a moment, it seems no different. Then all of a sudden, things start to go wrong for him as Irene keeps landing ever more strikes upon him until she finally stabs him, freezing him.

"Our duel was the exact same duel that I had with Sekai," Irene said.

Makoto feels a stab of regret over that revelation.

"Now you understand how your issue with Sekai can be fatal for you," Irene concluded softly, "if you ever cross paths with another immortal?"

Makoto finally unfreezes and lowers his head.

"I'll try to overcome it, sensei," he sighed.

"Do or do not, there is no try," Irene said. "But for now, let us take a break and have lunch, since it's now pretty close to it. Then we'll take a look around outside. I want to get a sense of the surroundings first."

After their lunch, they do so with Kotonoha leading them. Like the rest of Japan, it is a mountainous place of forests. They walk around for a few hours before returning in the evening for supper.

"We're getting up at sunrise, Makoto," Irene said as they are eating.

"Why so early?" He asked.

"Why do you think?" Irene answered dryly.

"Oh, I see, it's to fit as much training into the day as possible." Makoto starts to understand what Irene had meant by this place being the house of pain.

Afterwards, Makoto goes to have his bath. Even though the bath is a communal one, he is alone so he finishes sooner. Next up is Irene and the girls, together; causing a sense of awkwardness on Sekai's part as she bathes with both her rival and an ageless deathless Western woman hundreds of years old.

In their nudity, Sekai typifies a Japanese girl's body type. While Kotonoha is approximately the same height and build as Sekai, she has larger breasts than her. Irene's breasts are the same as Kotonoha's but look to be smaller because she is much taller than either of them, slightly taller than Makoto actually, and with a wiry physique. Her skin is like flawlessly smooth alabaster.

"You have pink nipples," Kotonoha mused.

"We redheads tend to have them," Irene answered as she briefly brushes one.

"I guess I should've expected that place on you to be like that," Sekai said to Irene.

"That I have no navel like Makoto?" Irene answered as she momentarily rubs the flawlessly smooth area on her stomach at her waist where there still should be one, only to have disappeared almost twelve hundred years ago.

"That and all other hair will be the same color too."

"I see," Irene answered casually as her eyes turn into sleepy-looking solid grey dots to denote sarcasm while a large sweatdrop graces her head.

They do their pre wash and finally soak in the large tub together, with Irene sitting in between them.

"If either of you ever go to Germany someday," Irene said, "be sure to check out the city, Aachen, for its famous warmspring. It's what compelled my father to choose that place for the new capital of his empire."

"My father has a branch plant in Cologne," Kotonoha said as she looks upward with her finger pressed against her chin. "Is Aachen anywhere near Cologne, Lamane-sensei?"

"Yes, it's over sixty kilometers to the west, along the border with the Netherlands."

"Well then, if I ever find myself in Germany someday, I'll be sure to ask father if we can go to Aachen and soak in its warmsprings."

"Ugh, I can already see the difference between me and her," Sekai groaned with a sarcastic frown that includes smaller pupils and irises to emphasis her sclera.

"And me too?" Irene asked.

"You're about as far away from normal as the sun is from Pluto," Sekai answered with her eyes as sleepy black dots, "which Makoto is also on."

"Point taken."

"Speaking of Makoto," Sekai next said with a sardonic grin, "I've come a very long way now."

"How so?" Kotonoha asked.

"Remember how I first reacted after he revealed himself to me up on the school roof that night?"

"Makoto did tell me that you crapped yourself," Irene quipped with a grin.

"Yeah, that's right," Sekai said with annoyance, "and I had to shower in the girl's locker room and wash my panties and stockings out. But," as her tone instantly turns to one of triumph as she holds a forefinger up for emphasis, "I begin getting over my shock and am no longer like that toward him. If anything, I am now the total opposite."

"Makoto did mention something like that to me along those lines," Irene said. "And it's like I explained to him: you simply adapted. In the beginning, he had the element of surprise over you. And for a while, you were uneasy about him too. But then I came along and explained everything. So now you've gotten over it as you now understand that there are other people like him out there. The more people who share an extraordinary talent, the less awesome they seem."

"That makes a lot of sense," Sekai said. "But there being only fourteen immortal people out of the billions of other people out there in the world is still awesome."

"But not frightening anymore since Makoto is just only one amongst thirteen, including me," Irene pointed out.

"But still," Sekai next stated, "do you really believe that he will overcome his mental block concerning me?"

Irene blinks silently for a moment.

"You don't think so, do you, sensei?" Sekai remarked in a hushed but eager tone with a grin while leaning closer to Irene.

Irene sighs softly while touching her forehead for an instance as she lowers her head with closed eyes before looking to Sekai once again. "I only had this gut feeling that all of us should spend some time here, that's all," she admitted while spreading her hand out.

"Gut feeling?" Sekai frowned with a raised eyebrow.

"I think she means intuition," Kotonoha said.

"So what you're saying is that you planned this little vacation for us on a mere hunch?" Sekai said wryly.

"Do you remember what I explained about our essence, Sekai?" Irene replied.

"Yeah, yeah, I remember," as she waved in a dismissive manner for a moment with closed eyes. "A force that all you immortals have that enhances your strength, speed, senses, and mind. It increases over time, but it will increase immensely if you vanquish another immortal who has a lot of their own."

"The mental part is automatic and perpetual," Irene added. "But that's the point I'm making. It not only increases our intelligence and memory, but other mental aptitudes too. One of them being intuition. Everyone has intuitions; it's just that for many people, it's negligible. From the amount of essence that I have gained over the centuries, it has made my intuition so highly developed that any hunches I get are almost always right. And even if they ever do turn out wrong, they are never entirely wrong."

"Okay, then," Sekai sighed with a shrug. "You have a reason for all of us being here. Do you happen to know if Makoto will break that mental block of his?"

"Well now that's the problem with intuitions," Irene winced discreetly. "No matter how highly develop they happen to become, they'll always remain unpredictable and undefinable. Never once have I ever been able to accurately figure out my hunches. I only assume that something is going to come out of them. I never even know if it's going to lead to a good or bad thing. All I understand is that I need to do this or go there. Take a leap of blind faith if you will. And all this in spite of my now having superhuman intelligence too. That's how I found out about Makoto by the way. It all started a couple of months before I discovered him, when I had this hunch to go to Japan and stay there for a few years. Then on that day I discovered him, I was going to go shopping but instead got a feeling to take a walk down to the shoreline where I saw your father's yacht, Kotonoha. Even though it was so far from shore that I couldn't even tell if there were two people lying out on the bow, I suddenly got that feeling that an immortal gets from looking at another immortal."

"Makoto got that feeling too!" Kotonoha piped up as she points out.

"Yeah, that's because he was in my line of vision, even though I needed to max out my essence in order to see your faces properly."

"Well if your intuition means anything, sensei," Sekai then snipped, "it can only mean that there's no guarantee that Makoto will break that mental block concerning me." And she laughs.

"And there's also no guarantee," Irene countered icily, "that he will _not_ break it either."

* * *

Makoto is in his room listening intently through the wall as the bathroom is on the other side. At first he could hear only mumbling through the wall as the material blocked out most of the conversation. He even used a glass to listen. It proved to be a little better, but still not by much.

That is when he thought about the essence. Is it possible that he has already built up a very small portion by now? It has been a few months ever since he had been turned into an immortal, courtesy of Sekai. He wonders over how he might be able to use whatever amount of essence he has like that.

He concentrates on trying to listen intently for the inaudible noises. Lo and behold, he suddenly finds himself filled with the sensation of a liquid rising in his ears. Sounds became even louder now. Yet it also feels as if he is trying to hold onto something slippery, so he needed to keep his concentration. Between the glass and his now slightly-enhanced hearing, he had been able to make out most of their conversation.

This includes Sekai's taunt about him not being able to break his mental block.

Makoto effortlessly releases his essence and puts the glass down while sighing. He turns away and flops down upon his bed on his back with his arms spread out. He simply lies there staring up at the ceiling, blinking, wondering.

Doubting.

* * *

Irene, Sekai, and Kotonoha get into that king-sized bed together with its pink quilted comforter, easily fitting all three of them. Kotonoha wears pyjamas while Sekai wears her green T-shirt with panties. Irene, who usually sleeps in the nude, wears a blue T-shirt with panties this time.

"Oh this is a comfortable bed," Irene said with approval as she snuggles into it between them.

"It is, isn't it?" Kotonoha sighed.

"I just hope none of you have unusual sleeping habits," Sekai said dryly.

Kotonoha turns out the light and in the darkness only rustling can be heard as the trio find their comfortable sleeping positions.

"I can bring up nightvision," Irene said. "It's just like those nightvision goggles."

Silence next falls and for awhile only the soft hissing of their breath is heard. It is suddenly broken by a loud drawn out buzzing fleshy noise.

"Excuse me," Sekai casually quipped over the din of disgust from Irene and Kotonoha.


	11. Chapter 10

Irene awakens at sunrise and ends up staring at the back of Sekai's head, who is still asleep. While it turns out that Sekai has no odd sleeping habits, Irene does discover that Kotonoha is a cuddler.

Willing forth her essence, she concentrates on her stamina. She does this by thinking of the interior of her brain and suddenly gets the sensation of it getting filled by a lake. In an instance, her sleepiness is completely dispelled and she is now more alert. Better than an espresso, with none of the lingering aftereffects.

Irene sits up and lets go of her essence, causing her alertness to seemingly drop, but only because that is the actual level. She crawls out of bed via the end and gets dressed in her bicycle shorts and sports bra. She looks to see Sekai roll over and glance at her with a half-asleep expression before laying her head down once again. Kotonoha also stirs then awakens as she looks at Irene.

"I suppose you want me to get up too, sensei?" Sekai groaned sarcastically.

"No that's okay, Sekai. It's only Makoto who must get up. You and Kotonoha can get up later."

"That's okay, sensei," Kotonoha instead said as she too is getting up. "I'm used to getting up at sunrise anyway."

Sekai growls as she buries her head underneath the pillow. She hears them walking downstairs, and feels a sense of bliss over being able to go back to sleep.

"Makoto!?" Irene is heard shouting with unnerving loudness for so early in the morning as she knocks quite loudly. "Come on! Up and at 'em!" Then knocks once again. The door is heard opening.

"Good, you know to wear what you wore yesterday," Irene is heard saying pleasantly this time, "now let's have a small breakfast."

"Oh, I can make breakfast," Kotonoha is heard saying chirpily.

Sekai moans as she continues hugging the pillow over her head as she lies upon her stomach.

"I thought a vacation was supposed to include sleeping in," she muffled depressively.

An hour later, Irene and Makoto are out the door after bidding Kotonoha a good day. They are barefoot. The day is clear and warm, meaning that by midmorning it will be even warmer, possibly hot.

"Do you think it's a good idea to leave Kotonoha and Sekai alone together, sensei?" Makoto asked uneasily. "I mean it's not like I'm really concerned for Sekai, it's Kotonoha who I'm actually concerned for."

"I don't really think you have to worry about Sekai trying to harm Kotonoha. She may be the type who can get angry and impulsive enough to kill, but she's actually not a stupid girl. I bet when she killed you, she was so horrified at what she had done that she felt overwhelmed with fear about getting caught and put in jail. And coming back from the dead might've really driven the fear further home for her."

"So she's afraid that Kotonoha might be a pre-immortal all along?" Makoto chuckled.

"Well, it's not like Sekai genuinely believes that," Irene answered with a dry wit, "it's more like the old saying, 'once bitten, twice shy' . . . Although." An edge of seriousness now in her tone.

"Although what?" Makoto asked with a somewhat stern tone.

"Although if a situation ever arises that Sekai might see that gives her the opportunity to kill Kotonoha without invoking suspicion, then she just might carry it out."

"Sensei, that's not a comforting thought!"

"Easy, Makoto, there's no such thing as the perfect crime. Sekai will need to kill Kotonoha in such a way that not only leaves absolutely no proof but absolutely no suspicion that might lead to a search for such proof. And like I just said, she's not stupid. After what she did to you and what you've become, she has learned from that experience."

"I still don't feel entirely secure with your conclusion, sensei," Makoto said dryly with a side-on leer at her that includes a dot-eyed sarcastic expression before turning casual once again as he looks to her. "So what exactly is it that you want me doing?"

"You'll see," she answered almost whimsically.

* * *

Back at the cottage, Sekai finally gets up to have breakfast. Kotonoha is busily sweeping the floor. There is silence for a time. Afterwards, Sekai finishes and puts the plate into the sink, which Kotonoha next picks up to clean off. As Sekai walks away, she turns and looks back at Kotonoha. She flirts with the idea of killing her and hiding her somewhere, then claim to the others that Kotonoha had gone out for a walk; except that won't work. She is not about to risk throwing away her life the way she almost did when she had killed Makoto. It was only by the greatest coincidence that he was already destined to be immortal that gave her a second chance.

But, if a means to kill Kotonoha ever arises without casting any suspicion upon herself. . . . ? Then that just may be a completely different matter.

"Is there something on your mind, Sekai?" Kotonoha asked without looking back as she returns to sweeping the floor after having put the washed plate back up.

"Don't you find it odd that Makoto can't beat me, and yet I can beat him?" Being quick to cover her dark thoughts. "I mean . . . in the beginning, I was terrified of him because he came back from the dead since he turns out to be immortal. I shouldn't even be able to want to face him, let alone take him on. Except now . . . now he doesn't frighten me anymore. Even though I can't even hurt him, let alone kill him, he just keeps fumbling with me."

"That's because in spite of what he has become he's still the same old Ito Makoto."

"You got a point there. But still, he now has a supreme advantage over me. You'd think that would increase his confidence."

"Perhaps it's because he still sees something in you. Even though you did kill him and he wants nothing to do with any intimacy with you, you two were close one time. So he still carries a grain of something toward you for it."

"Hey, that's right!" Sekai beamed with a rising tone of eureka. "Between his anger, that grain of something toward me, and his shame, he cannot defeat me! Then throw into this the fact that he also understands that he's invincible and there's no incentive for him to defeat me!"

"Do not confuse his inability to defeat you with an inability to harm you," Kotonoha said flatly. "You remember how he reacted yesterday after you had stabbed and taunted him? If not for Irene-sensei, he just might have killed you. You keep taunting him like that and he might be successful, especially if Irene-sensei is not present."

Sekai frowns at Kotonoha then turns her frown upside-down.

"I don't know about you," she next said in a tone that drips deviousness, "but I 'm just curious over what Irene-sensei has Makoto doing. After all, she is an exotically beautiful woman and a kindred spirit to him. So the probability of them becoming covered in grass stains goes up. And since she's had a lot of men over the past twelve hundred years or so, she will definitely be well-experienced and probably end up spoiling him for other girls, including you."

"I trust Makoto," Kotonoha answered simply as she turns her head to face Sekai momentarily with closed eyes.

"So did I," Sekai snapped coldly with a frown as she straightens, "and what does he end up doing? He smashes my heart into a thousand pieces! And need I remind you that he did the same thing to you as well." Pointing an accusing finger at her over that last sentence.

"And he came back to me."

"Let me explain something about men," Sekai next said irritably. "They are like dogs-no, not dogs, cats. Yes, tomcats. They prowl around the neighborhood to mate with any female they can."

"That's just your failed relationship between your parents speaking," Kotonoha said as she keeps sweeping.

"What the hell do you know about my parents!?" Sekai shouted.

"So am I wrong?" Kotonoha answered in an innocent, yet cold manner as she stops to face Sekai with a plain expression, yet with a cold intellect in her eyes.

Sekai merely glares silently back at Kotonoha.

"I still don't see how you can ever trust him again," she finally said with soft annoyance as she turns away from Kotonoha while folding her arms and leaning against the corner of the wall. "Then again, Lamane-sensei is a foreigner." As she made a shooing motion.

"What do you mean by that?" Kotonoha asked.

Sekai smirks and snorts while doubling over for a moment. "Surely you must've heard what is said about foreign males," she then answered in a wry tone and look at Kotonoha that consists of a grin with her brow furrowed over dots for eyes, "especially Caucasian and Negro ones."

But Kotonoha only blinks innocently, prompting Sekai to chortle with one brow raised high and the other furrowed while also giving Kotonoha a humorously hopeless expression.

"Man, but you're dense!" Sekai rasped in both frustration and humor, then clasps Kotonoha by her shoulders and shakes her slightly. "It means you don't need to worry about Makoto gettin' his dick into Irene-sensei because he can't get it big enough for her liking!"

Kotonoha gasps while blushing profusely.

* * *

Makoto lies on the ground sweating. Never in his life did he ever get such a workout before.

"C-Can we take a break, sensei? P-Please?" He moaned. "I-I'm tired."

"Come on," she commanded with a slap on his chest. "I won't be taking no for an answer."

"But sensei," he drawled pleadingly.

"Hop to it!" Slapping him more assertively on the chest.

"You sure know how to drive a guy, sensei," Makoto moaned as he slowly gets up onto his hands and knees for a moment, head hanging low.

"Only a guy like you," Irene said in flat humor. "Mortal men cannot take it. Now up and at 'em."

Makoto takes a deep breath to psyche himself up once again, before doing it once again. That being climbing up the sheer cliff before him that looks to be over a hundred feet high after having fallen for the third time.

It proves to be extremely difficult as not only is the cliff facing sheer, but there are not very many places for one to put their hands and feet upon or into. The first time he fell, he had fallen from about fifty feet up after his foot had slipped. He kept hitting the cliff on the way down as he tumbled head over heels before hitting the ground with a sickening thud. Irene had simply stood over him while staring down her nose at him.

"Well?" She had next said with a hint of sarcasm. "What are you waiting for? Get back up there."

Again, he got back up and returned to the climb for the second time. This time he had managed to get a little higher before slipping once again. There had been one moment on the way down when his forehead had struck a piece of rock jutting out. Normally, it would puncture a mortal skull, but he had actually felt the rock break off like a piece of insulating foam. Once again, he landed on the ground and lay there as he felt temporary tingling on various areas and even within his organs. Once again Irene demanded that he get back up there with eerie casualness. Yet again, he gave it a third go and fell, this time from a little further up than the second time.

Even though he understands that he cannot be harmed let alone killed by things like this, he cannot not help but feel a little flustered that Irene never responded with concern. Even if she were to question his well-being in a sarcastic tone, it could have still given him some comfort.

Makoto continues climbing ever higher, slowly and carefully. He remembers just where he had previously placed his hands and feet, enabling him to learn from his mistakes. After what seemed like hours, he finally reaches the top and pulls himself over it. He turns around to look down at Irene, who is now already climbing up the cliff.

He smirks, wondering if she will end up falling. He even fancies dropping a large rock upon her, but just as quickly suppresses that idea. It might annoy her to the point that she might end up doing something spiteful to him. Something that can result in instant death if done to a mortal. That and it will only be disrespectful to his sensei.

Makoto continues watching in amazement as Irene grapples up the side of the sheer cliff with unnerving ease as she keeps getting closer by the second. She must be using her essence to enhance her strength, he surmises. He feels flustered over not thinking about using what little essence he now has to enhance his own strength. Yet it might not have been enough to help him climb that easily.

Irene finally reaches the top and pulls herself over with one hand, practically flying over in the process.

"That was amazing, sensei," Makoto said with approval. "So what now?"

"Now we take a moment to look around."

They have a moment of silence to enjoy the view, even commenting about it.

"She's right you know," Makoto next said sullenly as he continues looking off into the distance.

"Who?"

"Sekai . . . What she was saying to me yesterday as she was stabbing me over and over . . . I allowed myself to die because I was ashamed of myself . . . Ashamed of how much I had hurt all the girls . . . I used them as if they were just toys."

"Is that why you cannot bring yourself to defeat her?" Irene then asked. "Because she was right?"

"I do know that there's more to it than that. More of why I cannot bring myself to best her. I just know it."

"Do you think it's because she's more skilled than you?"

"Yes!" Makoto rasped quickly as he shoots a look of epiphany at her. "That must be it, sensei!"

"There's a quote in the bible that states that the race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong. Well, that can also mean that victory is not always to the skilled either. Sekai is every bit as skilled as you are. In fact, even if you did have more skill than her, you would've still kept losing. It's just that your mind is not in the right place and hers is."

"Then how do I get it to be in the right place and keep it there, sensei?"

"Simple. You must get past your issues with Sekai. Because it's just like you had said: there is more there than your shame. And that reason is your issues with Sekai."

"That doesn't sound simple."

"You're confusing simple with easy when they are two entirely different things, Makoto. How long have you and Sekai known each other?"

"Since middle school."

"Were you two close friends before you became lovers back then?"

"Yes."

"Well now there you go. You still carry a touch of something for her."

Makoto gasps as his pupils and irises shrink while giving Irene a bewildered look.

"I-Impossible!" He growled. "There can never be anything between us after what she did to me! Never! If you weren't there yesterday, I might've ended up killing her!"

"Oh I have no doubt that you might have tried to," Irene answered casually. "But that's all you would've done . . . tried. You might have gone so far as to slug her, but you would not have gone any further than that."

"How can you be so certain of that, sensei!? You don't even know me well enough yet!"

"Makoto," Irene began with a sigh of impatience, "I have lived long enough to know these things. And what I have been witnessing between you and Sekai is that you have been consistently refusing to defeat her. Subconsciously speaking of course. You two were close one time, but that bond has been shattered between you and her when she murdered you. Despite that tragedy, there is still a speck of something there that prevents you from not wanting to harm her, coupled with your shame. Throw into this the fact that being immortal has made you essentially invincible and you don't feel that she is a threat to you."

"Then if what you say is true, why go through all this with her!? Why do I have to try to defeat her if I really don't need to?"

Irene sighs and is silent for a moment.

"It's like I was explaining to Sekai and Kotonoha when we were taking a bath together last night," she finally answered. "Despite my heightened intuition, I don't know the details other than I feel that all of us are to spend some time here together."

"I suspected you had said something like that," Makoto said.

Irene winces at him curiously before leering at him lightheartedly.

"Oh, now I get it," she drawled. "You were eavesdropping on us, you naughty boy." Then immediately turns serious. "Nevertheless, the way I see it is that you still need to overcome that mental block. For if you don't, then it might leach into your self-confidence like cancer. If you ever cross paths with another immortal who wants to vanquish you, they'll end up being successful because your self-confidence has been poisoned. You won't notice it in the presence of other mortals though."

Makoto stares at her silently.

"Why?" He demanded softly.

"Well, it's like I just told you, Makoto, that mental block-"

"No, why are you helping me? What purpose can you possibly have in training me to use a sword against other immortals? Why are you willing to place your trust in me?"

Irene stares at him for a moment while blinking thoughtfully.

"Because it was like I had once told you," she began softly, "I was in a similar situation myself. Another immortal rescued me when he could have simply vanquished me the moment he opened my intended grave. But no, he took me under his wing and taught me everything he knew. He fell in love with me and I with him. When he was vanquished, I was all alone once again. Even though I fell in love with other mortal men, I was inevitably left alone in the end."

"But didn't you once say that two immortals being in love with each other is an insanely deep commitment?"

"Yes I did, and I still mean it too. We may be immortal now, but we were once mortal. So various mortal traits are still there within us. The reason why I still carry a torch for Alphonsus is that he was vanquished when we were still committed to each other. I will always remember him when we were in love. But you know what they say about love: you cannot control it. Yet I fear that if I were to ever feel such love for another immortal once again . . . well . . . Can such love survive for eternity?"

"You're afraid, sensei?"

"Yes."

"But why do you still want to help me?"

Irene is silent as she gives him an expression that is flat yet still has the look of pain in those nearly ancient eyes.

"I'm sorry, Makoto," she finally answered with a touch of regret, "but the only way that you can ever truly understand why is if you manage to live as long as I have."

Makoto silently nods respectfully. "I suspect that I already do, sensei."

"Now up," Irene next said curtly as she leans over to slap his shoulder before standing, prompting Makoto to stand. "We still have training to do, remember? So follow me."

And she jumps off the cliff. Makoto looks down to watch her fall before shrugging with a sigh and jumping off too.


	12. Chapter 11

The days turn into weeks. While Kotonoha and Sekai take it easy a little, Makoto gets grilled by Irene in other things that are mortally impossible to perform. Things such as crawling up a river stream while submerged the whole time; using the side of a cliff as a punching bag with his bare hands; and of course, more extreme rock climbing. Yet not all of their routine involves the mortally impossible as there are also the usual weight training, aerobics, and isometrics.

When it comes down to dueling, the outcome always proved predictable: Makoto kept getting his ass handed to him by Sekai. He found his losses against Irene more tolerable, even pleasurable, when compared to losing against Sekai.

It is now early morning, just two weeks into their trip, and the four of them are standing side-by-side as they look out the window at a full-fledged typhoon.

Typhoons, monsoons, and hurricanes are just three different names for the cyclone; only their places of origin are different. Typhoons: the western Pacific and the China Sea. Monsoons: the Indian Ocean. Hurricanes: the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. Yet typhoons are the strongest of cyclones because the larger the body of water, the more moisture they collect from it. And the more moisture they collect, the larger and more powerful it becomes.

This typhoon is certainly proving to be no exception to the rule as the wind is blowing so strongly that raindrops as large as a man's pinky nail fall almost horizontally. The entire place is shaking from the power of the wind and thunder, making it seem as if it's about to be blown away. Something that has been known to happen.

"Wow, it sure is a rotten day outside!" Makoto marveled.

"Just another day for training," Irene said offhandedly.

"What!? You can't be serious, sensei!?" Makoto exclaimed. This despite having trained on rainy days of torrential downpours where there had been violent thunder and lightening. Yet they were not ones that involved raging winds. There was even a moment when he had been directly struck by lightening!

"Oh, I'm dead serious, Makoto," Irene grinned. "Now go get ready. We're going across the bridge."

The wind is blowing from behind the cottage with the doors in the opposite direction, so the doors are not in any danger from getting ripped off. The path though is to one side of the cottage so they needed to lean deeply side-on into the raging wind in order to walk there. If they could feel pain, then the rain might have ended up feeling like bullets against them. As they are coming upon the forest, a tree falls near them. Upon entering the forest, the trees offer a bit of relief. They arrive at the river to see that it is now a raging swollen torrent of foam and froth. As for the bridge, although it is swaying violently, it's in no danger of actually blowing away due to its construction. It might actually take a tornado to blow it away. They reach the car, where the prevailing wind is behind the jutted peak of a hill so the car is unaffected.

It is here that they repeatedly walk to and fro in the wind that at times knocks them down, Makoto more so.

* * *

Sekai is staring out the window at the rain.

"This weather ain't fit for human nor beast," she quipped. "Fortunately for Makoto and Irene-sensei, they're neither."

"That's because it can't harm them," Kotonoha said.

"We all should've left when they warned about that coming typhoon on the radio," Sekai said with annoyance. "Those two may be immortal but we're-"

Only to be interrupted by a loud shrieking that is of nails being pried loose. Next comes the loud crunching of wood that is swiftly followed by a loud crash as the roof lifts away. The girls scream as debris rain upon them just as the wind strikes them like a bomb blast from the wall getting blown down.

The wind now howls over the exposed girls, subjecting them to the driving stinging rain that soaks them instantly. Miraculously, neither of them is harmed. The typhoon knocks them down and they struggle to get back up. Sekai feels stunned over what to do next, and is then grabbed hold of by Kotonoha.

"We gotta get to Irene and Makoto!" Kotonoha shouted into Sekai's face over the din of destruction. "We have to cross the bridge!"

"Fine by me!" Sekai shouted back.

They fight their way to the trail before the forest offered them some protection.

* * *

Irene and Makoto are still carrying on their exercise routine in the howling tempest by using the headwind. Whenever they walked far enough, they hurried back and repeated it all over once again. At times, the wind seemed to flair up and Makoto fell backwards and tumbled for a little way. Even Irene stumbled at times, although she is quicker to recover from her fumbles than Makoto.

That is when Makoto notices Irene staring at something past him and she points it out. He turns to see a piece of board flying over the forest off in the distance, followed by more. He shoots a look of concern to Irene, who in turn has just such a reserved look herself.

Needing to say nothing, they hurry toward the trail.

* * *

Kotonoha and Sekai reach the bridge. Along the way, Kotonoha had taken a moment to ask Sekai to tuck her hair down into the back of her shirt so it won't blow around, even though it's soaked. This enables her to keep her hair in place so that she can get a clear view of her surroundings. Kotonoha practically crawls across the bridge while holding onto both sides of the railing. Sekai follows close behind while mimicking her.

That is when Sekai sees the perfect opportunity to do away with Kotonoha. All she has to do is grab her and hurl her off the bridge and that will be it. She can simply say that Kotonoha was right behind her, but had fallen off the bridge without her noticing in time. Just as it had been when she was about to murder Makoto, she feels the anticipation building within her for the right moment to act.

At almost halfway across the bridge, Sekai goes into action as she lunges at Kotonoha, grabbing hold of her. She then uses the wind for leverage as she shoves her to one side. Kotonoha for that moment thought that Sekai had simply lost her footing and grabbed onto her for support.

That is, until she feels Sekai distinctively trying to push her over with one arm while trying to lift her legs with the other. In that instance, her reflexes take over and she fights for her very life.

Sekai fights to shove her over while Kotonoha fights to stay up as she stares down into that swollen raging river. She knows that her life will end the moment she falls into it. Kotonoha bears all of her weight down in the effort to make herself heavier. It works, if only a little, because Sekai's time spent fencing has increased her strength slightly. Yet Kotonoha does have an edge of her own as she used to take dancing lessons. Those lessons give her more agility, enabling her to twist to one side. In that instance, she manages to look Sekai in the face to see a determined look, made all the eerier by the intensity of her eyes.

Sekai's face quickly twists to fury as her irises and pupils shrink to tiny shimmering dots.

"You little bitch, you stole him from me!" Sekai next shrieked furiously over the howl of the wind and roar of the river. "Since I can't kill him, I'll just kill you and make it look like an accident! He'll be hurtin' for eternity!"

Kotonoha makes no rebukes as she puts all of her effort into throwing Sekai off. Something that is hard to do when the bridge is practically billowing under the blast of the typhoon while at the same time threatening to blow them off.

Hoping that what she is about to do won't cost her of her life, Kotonoha lets go with one of her hands and quickly takes a swipe at Sekai with the back of her fist. The first row of her knuckles manages to connect squarely with Sekai's cheek, causing Kotonoha to wince from the hardness of Sekai's skull. But Sekai ends up getting her thoughts jarred, causing her to let go of Kotonoha.

Kotonoha uses this moment of freedom to turn and run to the other side. Unfortunately, Sekai quickly recovers and manages to grab her once again, even using the wind as leverage once again to hurl Kotonoha against one side of the bridge like before. Yet once again, this proves difficult to do as Kotonoha manages to resist this.

"Why can't you just die!?" Sekai shrieked in frustration as she continues trying to push her over the bridge. She knows that any second now, Makoto and Irene will show up and catch her red-handed and it will be all over.

This time, Sekai tries another tactic and squats down then gets underneath Kotonoha, using her own body as leverage. It seems to work as Kotonoha's lower half is getting hoisted a little further up. As for Kotonoha, she once again puts all of her effort into making herself as heavy as possible, seeing what Sekai is now trying. Her arms start getting tired and her hands ache from clasping into the mesh.

Once again, a gamble needed to come into play. This time Kotonoha shifts one of her legs to try and get a foot on Sekai's chest, except she ends up doing something that seemed better: she manages to place her foot onto Sekai's face. Kotonoha pushes with all of her strength, causing Sekai's head to snap to one side while squishing her nose. Sekai immediately lets go and clasps at her nose in pain while staggering backward into the guard rail. If it were not for the prevailing wind in her back, she might have lost her balance and gone over the railing.

Kotonoha recovers her footing and runs toward the other side once again. And once again, Sekai reaches out and manages to grab hold of her. Only this time, Kotonoha had been expecting this and immediately spins around in a clockwise direction, smashing her elbow across the side of Sekai's face. Sekai on the other hand had not seen that one coming and got her thoughts jarred and is sent reeling. Kotonoha manages to flee once again.

Sekai recovers, angrier and more desperate than ever before. This time with the resolve to strangle Kotonoha before throwing her over the side as she sets her sights on her victim once again, who is now nearly at the other side.

However, Makoto and Irene are now standing on the other side of the bank glaring at her. Makoto's glare is more intent than Irene's. Sekai seems to freeze like Makoto did whenever he got stabbed by Irene because she now knows that they know. She wonders just how long they were standing there. Kotonoha reaches him and they hug intently before she turns to glare back at her too.

Something inside Sekai snaps and despair fills her as her expression is of an intense frown with her pupils and irises shrinking to shimmering pinpricks. Her heart pounds hard over knowing what she now faces. This is clearly attempted murder and they are the witnesses to prove this, along with Kotonoha's testimony. Sekai understands the possibility of spending years in prison.

That is when it comes to Sekai that she can still beat Makoto. Yes, she can defeat him once and for all. She grins vacantly at him, then rushes toward the guard railing as the wind carries her along. Next, she swings first one leg over it then the other to hang over the side with her arms straight out. She had to struggle to hold on due to the intense wind and needed to squint one eye to be able to look at him. But when she does, she gives him a simpering smile and first lets go with one hand to casually wave goodbye.

"Don't you do it!" Makoto yelled furiously as he threatens to run out onto the bridge.

But Sekai turns her wave into a rude gesture as she finally lets go with the other, then vaguely hears him shout with frustration before finally hitting the cold churning water.

Sekai immediately goes into shock, causing her to inhale deeply on a reflex so that her lungs instantly fill with water. Her last thought is of her mother and suddenly regrets doing this just as her awareness fades into oblivion.

Makoto stands at the edge of the bridge while staring into the river to see if he can still see Sekai. He almost wanted to jump in and fetch her but knows that by the time he finds her she will be dead. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, then lowers his head while loudly exhaling to vent his frustration over feeling so cheated.

That is when he feels a gentle hand clasp his shoulder and he turns to look at Kotonoha. Her expression is one of empathy and resolve. Irene also stands there alongside her, but with a more weighted look. Makoto takes another glance back at the river.

"Let's get to the car," he said flatly as he turns away. "There's nothing more to see here."

At the car, they all get inside. There is a blanket in the backseat that Kotonoha uses to wrap around herself, but not before she removes her wet clothing for which Makoto has to turn away. Next, they all sit there in silence as they look straight ahead, unable to see anything outside since the violent downpour is blurring the windows. At times, the car rocks but is in no danger since the small jagged peak alongside them protects the car.

"It looks as if our time out here has been cut short," Irene finally said to break the silence. "When the storm clears up, Makoto and I will go out and see what can be salvaged from your cottage, Kotonoha. After all, we do need to wear proper clothing before we can go on our way. Then we will have to notify the authorities about Sekai."

"I should've known that she might try something like that!" Makoto said curtly. "No disrespect, sensei, but you should have seen this coming."

"I may be an immortal, but I'm not God," Irene answered sarcastically.

"So how are we gonna tell her mother about this?" Kotonoha asked.

"That'll be my job," Makoto answered somberly as he briefly raises his hand. "Oh, and the story will go like this," his tone now precise, "the cottage blew down around us, but none of us got hurt. We ran to seek shelter in the car but had to cross the bridge one-by-one for fear that it might fall apart with all four of us on it. You went first, Irene-sensei; I went second; you went third, Kotonoha, making Sekai the last one to cross. Sadly, between the wind and rocking and her lack of caution, she got knocked off the bridge and into the water."

"Simple and to the point," Irene said with a nod of approval. "It'll work. Even more so since we cannot repeat it the same way you said it or else it will sound suspicious. Right, Kotonoha?"

"Uh, yeah, okay. The cottage blew down around us, but nobody got hurt. We had to seek shelter in the car, but had to cross the bridge one at a time. You went first, Irene-sensei, Makoto-kun went second, I went third, and Sekai went last of all but got blown off the bridge and into the river."

"Exactly," Irene nodded with approval. "But I don't know if they'll find Sekai's body though."

"Why not, sensei?" Kotonoha asked.

"Due to your country being so small and rugged, its rivers are very short and flow violently, even without a storm to engorge them."

"That's certainly true," Makoto said dryly. "Our rivers are more waterfall than proper rivers. And with this storm adding to their volume, Sekai has probably been washed into the Pacific by now."

There is a moment of silence.

"Sekai knew what she was doing to me when she did what she did," Makoto next said sullenly.

"What do you mean?" Kotonoha asked.

"Other than feeling trapped, she also knew that by killing herself she'll forever cheat me of being able to overcome that mental block and defeat her in combat."

"Yeah, you do have a point there," Irene said. "With Sekai now gone, you're mental block has been rendered irrelevant."

The day stretches on and the typhoon does not seem to want to let up. By evening, it appears to get weaker as it seems to pass over. By nightfall, it becomes a moderate storm.

"I f-feel cold," Kotonoha said as she starts shivering.

"Okay now that is not a good sign," Irene said as she struggles to crawl into the backseat with her. "Come on, Makoto, I'll let you off the hook for this."

"What are you talking about, sensei?"

"We are going to huddle with her," Irene said as she lifts the blanket away to get in underneath with Kotonoha, momentarily exposing Kotonoha's nudity to Makoto. He blushes as his pupils and irises shrink to tiny dots while his eyes bulge. His nose also gushes blood for an instance.

"Down boy," Irene said in a gruff yet whimsical manner. "I said huddle. Now hurry before she dies."

Makoto is quick to jump into the backseat and lift the other end of the blanket to crawl in with her. Together they hold Kotonoha close, who blushes over Makoto holding her like this. While they are wet, their body heat quickly warms it up. Makoto is also blushing and is nervous on making any false moves as he can feel her naked body pressing against his own. He is careful to have his arms around her stomach just as Irene has hers there too. Kotonoha has one arm around him and the other around Irene.

With this much female flesh both near and against him, Makoto feels as if a certain part of him is about to burst.

"How are you feeling now, Kotonoha?" Makoto asked.

"Warmer," she sighed. "I feel better now, thank you both."

"How come we didn't shiver, sensei?" Makoto asked.

"Because the cold doesn't bother us, even though we can still feel it. That means even if it were a cold winter's day outside and you and I were dressed like this, it still wouldn't bother us. Because it simply cannot kill us. The same thing goes for heat too."

Even with his raging problem, Makoto still falls asleep as does Irene and Kotonoha. By morning, only a trace of the typhoon remains as a light breeze with drizzle. Much to his dismay Makoto had to release Kotonoha, who now feels a lot better, and goes with Irene to see if they can salvage something from the wrecked cottage. The bridge managed to hold up and they are able to cross it to find wreckage strewn everywhere. After trying to salvage as much of their clothing as they could, they return. Fortunately, some of that clothing happened to remain dry as it was still sealed away in suitcases. They were also to make certain to find their swords as well.

They return to the car and Kotonoha is able to dress in some of her dry clothing, as are Makoto and Irene.

It finally comes time for them to return, sans Sekai. It is as they are turning onto the highway that they arrive at a search and rescue checkpoint on the road.

"Okay, Makoto, this is your cue," Irene said as they are slowly approaching the stopping point.

Upon stopping, Makoto gets out and walks up to the checkpoint to inform them of Sekai's death and the "details" that led to it. The official adds this bit of information and tells him that a search will be done once everything calms enough.

They finally arrive back in Tokyo, stopping off at Kotonoha's place first. Kokoro is quick to greet them.

"Big sister!" Kokoro yelled as she runs to her and hugs her tightly. "I'm so glad you're okay! Were you scared of the storm!? I sure was!"

"We managed okay," Kotonoha answered as she strokes Kokoro's hair.

"Ah, Makoto-kun! Lamane-sama!" Kokoro next yelled as she hurries first to Makoto then Irene, giving them each a hug. "I'm so glad you're both okay too! Were you scared of the storm too!?"

"I was worried," Makoto answered as he hugs her in return.

"Me too," Irene answered as she also returns her hug.

They stay for a time, telling Kotonoha's parents about the typhoon. Of course, they keep the part about Sekai's death simple. The time comes for Makoto and Irene to leave and return to their respective places. But not before Makoto pays a visit to one last place in particular.

The door opens before Makoto.

"Hello, Ms. Saionji," he said as he greets her with a polite bow. "May I come in?"

"W-Why certainly, Makoto," she answered with a touch of unease as she steps aside to let him in. "W-Where's Sekai?"

"That's what I've come to talk to you about." His tone is somber.

"I-I'll put on some tea," Yoko simply answered with unease once again as she turns to go to the kitchen. Her normally mischievous laid-back persona now gone.

"No thank you," Makoto is quick to say as he stops her by clasping her shoulder. "What I have to say won't take long."

Yoko stands there back on for a moment longer in silence. Her breathing now quavering. Slowly, she turns to face him with an expression of tremendous grief as tears flow down her cheeks and her nose is runny.

"Please tell me that my baby is okay!" Her tone quavered softly.

For a moment Makoto is silent. Guilt now worming its way into him. He only witnessed Sekai being washed downstream so there is a possibility that maybe, just maybe, she got washed safely ashore before she drowned. No! That was a raging torrent of a river. And even if she didn't drown, she would have been killed anyway from being battered against the boulders littering that river.

He closes his eyes for a moment and sighs before opening them again with a solemn expression, then slowly shakes his head.

Yoko collapses to the floor as a wail of despair rips from her throat and her expression twists from grief. Makoto is quick to kneel and cradle her, gently holding her close. Yoko cries her anguish and loss into him. He holds her for a time until she calms enough.

"Kotonoha's cottage blew down around us," he began softly into her ear. "We managed to get away unharmed to take refuge in the car. The problem was that we needed to cross over a bridge in order to return to it. When we got to that bridge, we decided to cross one-by-one so as not to put any unnecessary weight upon it as it is a tethered bridge, even though it is a very strong one. Lamane-sensei went across first, then me, then Kotonoha. Sekai came last of all. Unfortunately, she wasn't careful enough and got knocked off halfway across. We all watched her fall into the raging river and get washed away . . . I'm sorry, Ms. Saionji . . . but there is absolutely no way that Sekai could have survived."

Yoko looks up at him with a defeated expression and slowly nods in acceptance. Her eyes look so dead.

"But we did inform the authorities," Makoto added intently as he helps her up. "So they might be able to locate her body."

Yoko once again nods slowly in reply.

"A-Are you going to be okay by yourself?" Makoto next asked her assuredly. "Is there anyone you can call up to spend the night with you?"

"Ah, yes, yes, there is," Yoko sighed. "Th-Thank you for asking, Makoto."

"I-I'm going to be going now," he said apologetically.

"Oh yes, yes, you go on."

They bid each other a goodbye and Makoto leaves to get into the car with Irene.

"I don't need to ask you how she took it," she said.

"I just feel so guilty that I had to lie to her like that, sensei," Makoto sighed regrettably as he buckles his seatbelt.

"You didn't lie to her, Makoto," Irene answered as she reaches for the ignition key. "You only told her what she needed to know."

And with that said, she starts the engine and shifts the stick to drive away.

_Four years later. . . ._

Makoto is asleep as he is soaking in his bath. But not like a normal person does as he is laid out flat upon his back fully submerged under two feet of water. When underwater, immortals can neither inhale nor exhale and water does not go into their orifices, save for their mouths, but only as far as to the back of their throats. Oddly, they cannot swallow while underwater. He keeps sleeping away submerged within the hot water, with not even the slightest need to breathe. His appearance is more mature now and his body more wiry.

Makoto now attends Tokyo University, along with Kotonoha. He is taking World History and Kotonoha is taking Genetics. As for Irene, she still teaches at their old school, even giving fencing lessons too.

That is when the sound of his cellphone going off quickly awakens him, causing him to splash water everywhere as he gets out of the tub. It turns out to be the text message chime, making him wonder if to just ignore it and continue to soak in the tub. Still, he dries off and goes to answer it.

Upon answering it, he finds the text to be from Eternalbabe. Irene's e-mail. It shows an address, along with an attachment. Makoto grimaces slightly over it, wondering what Irene is going on about and opens it.

It contains the image of Kotonoha, now more mature with age, bound to a pipe with what looks to be a shiny string wrapped across her chest. Tape has been applied to her mouth with a tube jutting out through it for her to breathe. Her expression is one of helplessness.

Makoto gasps as his eyes widen and his pupils and irises shrink. He tries to contact Irene, only to get no answer. Confusion reigns in him and he needed to get to the bottom of this as he quickly dresses.

Afterwards, he wonders if to bring his sword along as he is hesitant on doing so. With a grimace, he lays hold of it and takes it along under his coat to find the place in the address. Upon reaching the destination, he finds out that it is an old warehouse. He comes upon the main door and discovers its padlock lying on the ground just in front of it, now crushed and bent.

Makoto inhales with a sharp shudder, then gulps apprehensively as he grips the hilt of his sword. He enters and looks around. Sure enough, he finds Kotonoha up on a platform in the manner of how she was depicted in the picture. Kotonoha perks at the sight of him.

But standing on her right side is her captor with an arm around her shoulders. The captor is wearing a long black coat with the hood pulled up and head hanging down to obscure their face in darkness. Moreover, the captor is giving Makoto the feeling that only an immortal can give him. He wanted to demand Kotonoha's release. Yet between his fear for her life and his unwanted certainty now regarding this situation, he can only hold his tongue.

The captor slowly reaches up and gingerly takes hold of their hood. Then with one quick tug, pulls it back to look straight at Makoto with an inanely broad smile, along with pupils and irises like pinpricks.

"Look who's back from the grave, now able to vanquish you!"


	13. Chapter 12

"S-Sekai!?" Makoto rasped with horror as his irises and pupils are now tiny shimmering dots.

"You bet it is!" Her proclamation is gleeful, making her sanity questionable. Her appearance is a little more mature, but ageless, and her hair is nearly a brushcut.

Makoto continues gaping in astonishment. It just didn't seem possible! Sekai alive!? And immortal!? Although it did explain why her body was never found.

"Incredible, isn't it!?" Sekai gloated as she begins undoing her coat. "Never in a billion years would I've ever guessed that I was a pre-immortal all along! Not you, not Kotonoha, and certainly not Irene Lamane!"

She removes her coat to reveal a red tanktop that she is wearing to show off her now heavily-toned arms and shoulders. Her pants are blue nylon track pants with a yellow line down the sides.

"You like my new look, Makoto?" As she tosses the coat aside then flexes her muscles. "I spent the last four years training my body and my skills for this moment."

Makoto just stares silently back up at her.

"What's wrong?" Sekai asked. "You're being pretty quiet? Aren't you going to ask what I think you want to ask?"

"Whe-Where's Irene-sensei?" His tone quavering and fearful.

"Let me answer that by showing you three things," she instead answered as she kneels down at a folded blanket alongside Kotonoha and removes it to reveal three items. She picks up two of them and remains in a squatting position.

"This is her cellphone," holding her right hand aloft, then her left, "and this is her hair." That being a foot-long very thick lock of scarlet hair bound together with string, suggesting that Irene had a haircut.

"And this," she began as she transfers the hair over to her other hand with the cellphone and picks up the other object, "is her sword." As she stands and holds it high over her head while clasping the scabbard-encased blade.

There is no mistaking it: that sword is indeed Irene's.

"No!" Makoto gasped with horror as he slowly shakes his head in denial. His dotted eyes in their sea of white shimmered with horror and grief. Tears glimmer in them.

"Really now, Makoto," Sekai said sternly. "Do you honestly believe that Irene-sensei had cut off her hair and gave it to me . . . ? Willingly lent me her cellphone and sword . . . ? And now allows me to endanger both Kotonoha's life and yours . . . ? Accept it, Makoto . . . Irene-sensei is gone. And she is gone because I vanquished her. The reason why I have her hair is that I managed to cut it off at the same time I was cutting her head off."

Makoto now feels as if he had been kicked in the stomach as he looks down while keeping that look of both horror and lost.

"H . . . H-How d-did you do it, Sekai!?" He finally demanded in a lost tone as he looks back up at her. "How did you, a twenty-year-old, managed to vanquish a twelve-hundred-year-old . . . !? Someone who had vanquished four other immortals who were probably no less skilled than she was!"

"First of all," Sekai answered, "I want to start at the beginning with my resurrection . . . "

_. . . .An explosion of colors, sounds, smells, tastes, and sensations assault Sekai. The next thing she is aware of is being underwater as she feels its pressure upon her whilst she vomits. For a moment, she thrashes about in panic and stops. Her heart pounds intently with shock, yet she can neither inhale nor exhale. She looks at her own hands then begins ardently touching herself, swishing up the water around her in doing so._

_Her shock gives way to overwhelming surprise, knowing that she cannot be anything else but what Makoto and Irene are. There can be no other explanation. She looks upward to see the light and swims up to the surface. The closer she gets, the more turbulent it grows. When she finally breaks the surface, the waves pitch her around as the wind blows strongly. The typhoon is for the most part over with as there are breaks in the clouds and the rain has since stopped._

_Sekai's eyes shrink into pinpricks in a sea of white and begins chuckling. Her chuckling grows in intensity until she starts bellowing with laughter as she grabs hold of her own head as if wanting to rip out tufts of her hair._

_All around her is the seemingly infinite Pacific Ocean. . . ._

". . . To make a very long story short," Sekai continued, "I managed to swim all the way to Tanega-Shima, one of the Ryukyu Islands. I spent the next four years there under a different name, working at odd jobs and working out at a gym where I also honed my fencing skills. During that time, what little essence that grew I got the hang of using my growing essence on my physical abilities. And I must admit that I was even growing a little smarter and my memories were becoming sharper too. My thoughts became a bit more focused and refined. This enabled me to plan on how to get rid of you. First, I needed to get rid of Irene-sensei. The time finally came to return. I only arrived in Tokyo just this morning. I do admit that my plan was more of a gamble than an actual plan because I was assuming that Irene-sensei was still at that apartment and teaching at our old school. Plus, I was also assuming that Kotonoha was still living at home. I do distinctively remember where Irene-sensei once told me she lived, down to the floor and apartment number, while we were staying at Kotonoha's cottage. I reached the apartment complex where Irene-sensei lived to put my plan into action . . ."

_. . . .Sekai stands before the apartment complex staring up at it, wearing both her coat and her sunglasses. There is a sense of anticipation within her as she had spent four years planning on how to get rid of Irene and finally Makoto._

_The plan to get rid of Irene is to simply ambush her without letting her know until it's too late. In no way is she going to try and duel her. Four years of experience still cannot compete against hundreds of years of experience. Even though Irene had once said that the first immortal she had vanquished was hundreds of years older than her. But she did not want to take any chances._

_Inside her coat, tucked away within a large inner pocket in a slender case is a dozuki, a small saw that looks like an oversized straight razor with a serrated edge that she had purchased back during her time on Tanega-Shima. During her time back there, she had practiced diligently on cutting speed, encasing the saw in an aura to protect it. The aura she had been bemused by, now knowing that as an immortal she can see it; yet as a pre-immortal she could not. Between her enhanced strength and the aura surrounding the saw, she used to saw pieces of log seven inches in diameter (at least that is how she compared the toughness of a human neck with just such a piece of wood) fairly easy. Before coming here, Sekai had been certain to have the blade sharpened beforehand._

_Yet before all this, she first decided to find out how her mother is doing. Only to discover that she committed suicide by poisoning four years ago. Even if her mother were still alive, she might not have wanted to contact her in the first place. For the past four years, she always feared that somebody was going to find out about her immortality, even if it never happened. Now she understood what Irene and Makoto had gone on about. That fear is always in the back of her mind, like a smear on a window that cannot be removed._

_Sekai shakes her head to clear her thoughts. She has a plan that she wants to fulfill. If her assumptions are right, Irene will be teaching during this time of the day. All she needs to do is simply break into her apartment and wait. The problem is breaking in without being discovered by the tenants or landlord. Hopefully, Irene still lives there._

_She casually makes her way up to the floors and comes upon the door to Irene's apartment. For a moment, she simply stands there and takes a deep breath then exhales. On a whim, she tries the door. Predictably, it's locked, even though she had been hoping that just this once Irene had forgotten to do so. No chance, due to her photographic memory._

_She cannot just go down there and ask the landlord to open the door for her. He will wonder who she is. Even if she lies, explaining that she is a friend of Irene's who wants to surprise her, he will only get suspicious and even tell Irene when she returns. There must be something that she can do to get in there without arousing suspicion._

_That is when a door opens three doors down. Her heart jumps over the possibility of getting caught. A man steps out holding a pair of broken glasses. The keys on his waist showing that he is the manager._

_"I'm so sorry about your glasses, Shiro-kun!" A woman's voice said from within._

_"I was going to get them replaced anyway," the manager said assuredly as he waves her back._

_"Can you still see well? I know you have trouble seeing details without them."_

_"Bah, I can still see fine," he waved in a dismissive manner. "Nothing to worry about."_

_"Okay then, goodbye." And the door shut._

_The manager begins walking away as Sekai stares after him. No, it can't be that easy. But she is not about to let this potentially golden opportunity slip by and hurries after the manager._

_"Excuse me," she said upon reaching him, prompting the manager to turn to her. He squints closely at her as he peers into her face._

_"Yes?" He asked when she failed to say anything more. "How can I help you?" Now squinting ever closer into her face._

_For a couple more seconds, Sekai is silent. Can she honestly get away with this?_

_"Could you help me get into Irene Lamane's apartment?"_

_"The red-haired foreigner? Why?"_

_"I'm her sister."_

_Sekai feels her heart jump up into her mouth over that comment. In the space of one second, she feels that her plan has failed. Already she can feel a sense of defeat._

_"Oh, really!" The manager suddenly chimed, and starts fumbling with his keys. "Well then, certainly!"_

_He walks past Sekai. For a moment, she gapes in shock at him, but it is now clear to her that without his glasses, he cannot tell that she is Japanese too. He selects a blue key and fits it into the lock of Irene's apartment door. The only key with that color amongst his set of keys. He opens the door and lets her into the apartment. Sekai feels an overwhelming sense of relief._

_"Remember," she said as she turns to him while pointing. "It's a surprise."_

_"Forgot about you already," he winked assuredly. "And you speak excellent Japanese too."_

_"Thank you."_

_He closes the door, leaving her alone. Sekai removes her sunglasses and tucks them away as she looks about the place. Her heart is racing as her hands and groin tingles with expectation. She needed to find a place to hide. That is when she stares at the closet. Perfect, she can hide in there and wait to strike at a moment's notice. That means she will need a knife to do so because her small saw is not pointed. She rummages through the kitchen drawers and finds one. It is a large chef's knife, the kind she had used to kill Makoto with four years ago._

_Sekai removes her coat and takes her saw out, then removes it from its casing. She next folds her coat and places it down on the floor inside, carefully tucking it into the corner, followed by placing the saw casing upon it. She next gets in and places the saw on her feet to be within easy grabbing distance._

_She closes the door, and waits._

_Sekai wonders if she will truly be successful. Will she really be able to take down Irene? She needs the element of surprise and if Irene suspects the presence of another immortal, her cover will be blown. Moreover, how long will she need to wait?_

_Time drags ever onward, making it seem like eternity. Several hours must have passed since having gotten into this closet. That is when the sound of the door being unlocked dispels any of her idle thoughts. Next comes the sound of the door opening, causing Sekai to gasp and her heart to race. She steels herself with the knife, hoping to succeed. For a split second, she wanted to throw open the door and just attack her. She fights hard to suppress that thought for she has come too far now._

_Sekai tightens her grip on the handle as she holds it in both hands while pointing it outward, ready to strike like a snake. With what little essence she now has, she uses it to enhance her hearing. That is when she shifts her foot, bumping it against the door and causing her heart to skip a beat._

_"I heard that," she heard Irene calling out casually. "Now come on out of there."_

_Sekai's heart beats all the faster as she tries to make her breathing shallower. If she doesn't pull herself together, it will be all over. Letting go of her enhanced hearing, she next casts an aura over the knife and enhances her strength as much as she can. She now understands perfectly clear that up until the moment Irene had entered, she had not detected her in any way. That can only mean that Irene doesn't know about her presence either. Even now, she doesn't seem to expect the intruder to be an immortal, or else the feeling might have been mutual. Then it can only mean that this detection immortals share only works in a visual manner._

_"Fine then," Irene is heard calling out casually as her voice grows closer. "I'm just going to have to kick you out of here."_

_A second later, she can hear her hand clasping the knob and turning it. Sekai feels like a spring coil._

_The door finally flies open._

_Up until halfway into the next second, nothing happened because Irene ends up gaping with bewilderment over finally discovering that it's both Sekai and what she now is, or what has been all along. Sekai stabs out with all of her strength and speed, while throwing her whole body into the motion. Sekai feels it to be futile._

_Until she feels the blade penetrating Irene's flesh all the way up to the handle, along with that feeling of a tube being shoved into her._

_Sekai immediately lets go of the knife hilt and stares at Irene, expecting her to attack. She does nothing as her expression is frozen into a rictus of shock. As fast as she can move, Sekai bends down and picks up the saw, also encasing it in that aura. With both hands on the handle, she brought the blade up to Irene's neck, certain to have the teeth facing the skin and enhancing her strength to its limits._

_Sekai immediately starts sawing through her neck as fast as she can, all the while honestly expecting Irene's neck to be as tough as those pieces of wood she used to cut through for practice._

_Surprisingly, a neck turns out not to be as tough as she had expected it to be, especially with her strength now heightened and an aura encasing the saw, as Sekai manages to reach the vertebrae in two strokes. Four more strokes gets her blade through. Normally, a person's head would flop to one side after being severed from the vertebrae. Except when it comes to frozen immortals, however, soft tissues become as rigid as a corpse during rigor mortis to prevent such a thing from occurring. The blade is now only a single stroke away from completely severing Irene's head from the rest of her body._

_The blade finally clears the last strand of skin and Irene vanishes._

_Sekai feels herself being overwhelmed by both relief and by what seems to be an ocean pouring into her. She is overwhelmed with a rush, causing her to stumble to the floor. Her thoughts suddenly became so much more focused while her knowledge makes so much more sense, and her memories are sharp to the point as if her childhood were only a second ago._

_Sekai basks in the afterglow as she lies on the floor, still having a hard time trying to come to terms with having just killed twelve-hundred-year-old immortal._

_After a few minutes of rest, Sekai recovers and gets up while staring down at the now empty pile of clothing, with the hilt of the knife still sticking out from the blouse. There is also a small pile of her hair that got cut away before she got vanquished. Sekai looks around and suddenly finds that she can spot more detail about the place._

_She next goes in search of Irene's sword to find it in her bedroom tucked into a large pocket of her coat._

_Sekai almost wanted to take the coat, but it might end up looking suspicious on her. That and its size is too big for her to wear properly. So she decides to take a bed sheet and wrap the sword up into it before returning to where Irene last existed. She gathers up the strands of red hair and bunches them together. Looking around the place rewards her with some string and she carefully binds those strands together. Next, she rummages through Irene's pockets to find her cellphone. She encases the backsaw then removes her coat from the closet and pockets her items into it. Putting her coat on, she next picks up the sword and leaves to carry on the next phase of her plan for revenge._

_With her mental facilities now heightened to superhuman, this includes intuition. It is through this that Sekai finds Kotonoha's house and stakes it out from a tree off in the distance. Sekai enhances her vision and it becomes so sharp that she can actually make out Kotonoha in a window when before she wasn't even a dot to her! Sekai feels relieved that Kotonoha is still living with her parents._

_For a time, she gets down and meanders about the park until it gets dark enough and returns to that tree. From up there, she watches as the lights eventually go out in the Katsura mansion. She gets down to casually stroll down the street, waiting longer still to insure that everyone there falls asleep before going to the mansion._

_Sekai thinks of all the possibilities of getting in there. A very easy thing for her to do now when before she would have been overwhelmed by the possibility of even attempting this._

_After enough time passes and feeling confident enough about it, Sekai ambles toward the mansion. At the looming stone wall, she at first thinks of crawling up it when she suddenly thinks about the moon, or more specifically the astronauts that used to visit it. They had been able to perform superhuman feats due to the very low gravity up there. This has to do with the fact that human muscles are meant for Earth's stronger gravity._

_Of course! She thought. The stronger a person is, the lighter their own body will be to them! Especially if they don't gain any more mass for it!_

_Sekai focuses on making herself as strong as possible and suddenly feels so light that she fancies that she might actually blow away from a simple gust of wind._

_She takes a deep breath and slowly squats. With all of her effort, she jumps and ends up clearing the top of the wall as if it were only a foot high barrier to her. The shock of her feat of strength causes her to wave her arms and legs about and lose her focus, causing her strength to disappear as she now feels her normal heavy self. She lands in an undignified manner upon her stomach, knocking the wind out of herself._

_Sekai groans softly before she slowly gets up to stare at the mansion now towering before her. There must be a way inside, grab Kotonoha, and be gone. All without rousing anybody else._

_More to the point, where will she take her next?_

_Once again, intuition comes into play as a hunch of some building that she had passed back along the way here. With that problem seemingly solved, Sekai next deduces where she is to enter the mansion. First of all, she needed to ditch the sword for a bit and places it against the side of the wall. Next, she walks up to the side of the house underneath a balcony and jumps, catching hold of the platform and pulling herself up as if she weighs only as much as a feather. Taking hold of the latch, she breaks it as softly as she can, once again surprising herself, and carefully opens the door to enter. The hinges never creaked. She closes it behind herself once again and won't be using this means of entrance as an exit._

_Sekai stalks through the darkened mansion. Wishing for night vision, she thinks about it. Lo and behold, she has it. Like her enhanced vision, she needed to concentrate in order to retain it. Once again, she tries to get her newfound intuition to work for her. As she passes a closed door, her head swivels toward it. Is that Kotonoha's room?_

_Carefully, ever so carefully, she opens the door to peek inside. Like the hinges of the balcony door, they never creak. This can only mean that the door hinges around here must frequently get oiled._

_Sure enough, there in her bed lies Kotonoha, sleeping soundly. Sekai sneaks in and closes the door. Her heart racing as her palms and groin tingle in anticipation. She walks up to Kotonoha, who gives no hint of knowing her presence, and finally stands alongside her._

_Kotonoha turns over in her sleep with face now toward Sekai. It is now or never and Sekai slowly bends over to be just inches away from Kotonoha's face while placing her hand over her mouth, enhancing her strength just a little bit._

_Kotonoha immediately awakens then struggles with an attempt at screaming._

_"No! No, you will not, you little bitch!" Sekai quickly hissed into her ear. "I can break your neck like a twig now, ever since I vanquished Irene-sensei!"_

_With her night vision on, she can see Kotonoha's terror-struck eyes. Sekai notices something of interest and reaches for it. That being a tiny statuette. Holding it in front of Kotonoha's terrified face, Sekai enhances her strength to its maximum, then bends it using only her thumb._

_"Your neck will be a lot easier to break than this if you ever make any noise," Sekai whispered dangerously into Kotonoha's ear._

_She ever so slowly removes her hand from Kotonoha's mouth, who in turn struggles against screaming as she stares into Sekai's face looming before her own._

_"S-Sekai!" Kotonoha quavered softly in terror. "Y-You're immortal too!?"_

_"I'm just as shock myself!" Sekai whispered with delight before turning serious once again. "Now then, I can just simply kill you right here right now and take your carcass with me and show Makoto over Irene-sensei's cellphone. And killing you will be a lot easier on me than it was when I first killed Makoto. The only reason why I want you alive is so that you can watch as I vanquish him. So even if you are dead and he does manage to vanquish me, you won't get to witness it and be with him for the rest of your life. Now . . . are you gonna be a good girl and come willing and quietly?"_

_"Y-Yes, yes I will!" Kotonoha gasped._

_"Good," Sekai nodded and grins with approval, "now let's go," as her tone turns serious while pulling her upright and out of bed. "Remember: absolute silence."_

_Sekai leads Kotonoha ahead of her while keeping a firm grip upon her neck. Even enhancing her strength slightly as a warning. Kotonoha for her part does as she had been told, yet there are moments of when she wanted to scream out. Only to quickly suppress them as she is not a stupid girl by keeping her mouth firmly shut, biting her lips together in the effort to do so. Sekai leads her downstairs and to the door as she remembers seeing it there when she had the place staked out._

_Once out the door, they return to where she had ditched the sword and orders Kotonoha to pick it up. Sekai enhances her strength to maximum and casually picks Kotonoha up too as if she weighs nothing at all._

_"If you happen to drop that before we reach the other side," Sekai whispered dangerously, "I might get angry enough to kill you. Got it?"_

_"Got it!" Kotonoha whispered fearfully as she clutches the wrapped sword tightly._

_"Brace yourself now," Sekai whispered. "We're gonna go flying."_

_And she jumps, this time able to clear it successfully now that she knows what to expect. Kotonoha gasps with shock, causing a squeak to escape her throat. Sekai lands upon her feet on the other side, even with Kotonoha held aloft. She puts Kotonoha down, who now gapes at her._

_"H-How did you do that!?"_

_"I increased my strength to its limits," Sekai answered as she takes back the wrapped sword, then turns Kotonoha around and grips her nape. "Enough talk. Let's go."_

_"Where-?"_

_"Quiet!"_

_They arrive at Sekai's desired destination, all the way up to the door._

_"It's locked," Kotonoha said while staring at the strong-looking padlock._

_"Is it now?" Sekai answered dryly. "Hold this again."_

_She then pushes Kotonoha aside a little while keeping a hand on her as she reaches out with the other to clasp hold of the lock. She crushes the lock then pulls on it, ripping it from the door._

_"Not anymore it is," as she drops it then takes back her parcel. She next forces Kotonoha to open the door and they enter. The interior is dark, but not to Sekai._

_"We immortals have nightvision too, you know," she said casually. "I would've said that earlier, but we weren't in a secure enough location just yet."_

_"You fought Irene-sensei and defeated her!?" Kotonoha is now able to gasp._

_"No, I simply ambushed her in her apartment. An easy thing to do, as long as one immortal doesn't see the other immortal in time. Now then," as she places her parcel down and stands as she also retrieves a pipe in the process, "you stand right over . . . here . . . Perfect. Now hold still."_

_She wraps the pipe around Kotonoha's waist, wrapping it around another pipe attached to the wall, trapping Kotonoha._

_"Okay, now that this is done," Sekai next said after testing the bond to be certain that she had effectively trapped Kotonoha, "I'm going to take a look around the place for lights and anything else. You keep silent or else I will get very angry . . ."_

". . . After finding the lights, I next went to work fixing her up into this pose," Sekai finished. "Then I took a picture of her using Irene-sensei's phone and sent it to you, along with the address, and simply waited for you to arrive."

As Sekai was finishing her story, Makoto had begun undoing his coat.

"I see," he finally said grimly as he now removes it. "I don't need to ask you why you went through all this just to lure me here," as he lays ahold of the hilt of his sword, "because it's perfectly obvious." While unsheathing it with a single flourish.

"Four years," Sekai drawled ruefully as she unsheathes Irene's sword and casts an aura over it as she drops the scabbard.

She suddenly leaps high into the air. High over Makoto's head as if seemingly flying to land across from him and quickly turns to face him.

"Four years I have spent in exile," she next hissed with a frown as her irises and pupils now pinpricks in a sea of white, "honing my skills to confront you one day. And now, I have the advantage of superhuman intelligence, intuition, memory, reflexes, and strength. All a gift from Irene-sensei." Her tone next turns contemptuous. "Then there's the fact that you were never able defeat me back in my pre-immortal days. Face it, Makoto, there's no hope for you."

"When you were still mortal," he answered grimly with an equally grim stare, "I had no real reason to defeat you. But now I do." Then holds his blade aloft as he too casts an aura over it. "So let's finish this, once and for all."

They run at one another with a yell and cross swords, causing a loud clang to echo throughout the warehouse. The battle now begins.


	14. Chapter 13

At first, Makoto doesn't find Sekai to be any stronger. Suddenly, he feels as if he is dueling with a gorilla and gets shoved backwards, causing him to fly for about twenty feet with horrific ease before landing and rolling back up onto his feet.

"See, what did I tell you?" Sekai taunted.

"But you do know that you'll need to perpetually keep your concentration in order to stay that strong," Makoto answered defiantly.

"But not for my mind," Sekai answered.

They clash once again. This time Makoto feints then attempts to stab her through the chest. Sekai just barely manages to recover with a burst of speed and is forced to knock his blade aside. They clash swords once again, each trying intently to get past the other's defense. Just as Makoto had warned, Sekai cannot keep up her strength and frequently loses her concentration to keep it. Yet with her now superhuman intelligence and intuition, Makoto just might find her an even more difficult opponent now, even if she never enhances her strength against him. However, having one's mental facilities enhanced does not make them infallible. A higher IQ can easily lead to arrogance; arrogance leads to carelessness; and carelessness leads to death. Intuition is unpredictable, which in turn makes it unreliable (or else Irene would have avoided being vanquished with such disturbing ease).

Sekai tries to slash him across the eyes as she had once done back at Kotonoha's cottage. Makoto spins around to avoid it, taking it across the back and side of his head. He tries to return the favor with a firm backslash of his own; except Sekai felt this coming and blocks with her forearm then jumps backward to avoid a possible stab.

That is when she manages to slash low, severing the tendons under Makoto's right kneecap. No sooner had she done that before Makoto shifts his balance onto his good knee and stabs her through her upper right arm, severing her bicep as the tip of his blade slides over her bone.

So while Makoto falls back, Sekai ends up unintentionally lowering her sword as she too falls back; each hoping for their wounds to leave all the sooner, despite there being only seconds left to the continuing existence of their respective injuries. They are now soaked with sweat as it drips from their hair and streams down their faces.

"I did love you one time," Sekai said in a soft, seemingly regrettable manner.

"And yet you allowed me to pursue Kotonoha!" Makoto snapped.

"And it was me who got you two together because you were too chickenshit to approach her by yourself!"

"But you still chose to go ahead with it!"

The tingling finally disappears from both of them and they clash once again. And once again Sekai boosts her strength, which in turn boosts her speed, to try and slip in past Makoto's defense by feigning to one side and rushing past him to stab him through his ribs. It would have worked if not for her arrogance because she failed to take into heed her own momentum that had been heightened by her strength. This causes her to miscalculate and instead gashes him across his back as she continues flying until she goes rolling across the floor. Yet she just as quickly rolls back onto her feet.

"You see?" Makoto said. "Just because you now have more essence doesn't mean you've become more skilled."

"Well I now know not to do that again," Sekai rebuked before lunging at him.

This time she tries a new tactic as Makoto makes one move and she counters with another by managing to slash him so deeply across his throat that her blade slides over his vertebrae. Her plan is to get him looking upward unintentionally for just long enough so that she can stab him to freeze him. Yet it doesn't go the way Sekai intends it to because Makoto lunges at her while grabbing hold to deliberately make his squirting blood soak her face and get into her eyes before it stops.

Sekai enhances her strength to its limit and viciously elbows him in the ribs, giving him a blow that is capable of instantly pulverizing mortal ribs. Makoto quickly uses his doubling over momentum to hurl himself backward well away from her before she can take advantage of the possibility of stabbing his torso. Once he is away from her, he recovers and stands ready to face her. That gaping wound in his throat is now gone, with some of his blood smearing his shirt and throat. And Sekai's face as she quickly wipes each eye while spitting some of it with a sneer of disgust.

They clash once again, attacking, parrying, and countering.

"You and I could've still been something together, Makoto," Sekai said almost as a lament over their duel. "We could've spent eternity together."

"But we would've eventually parted ways because our love would've still been mortal," he answered. "Besides, I have Kotonoha now."

"She will eventually die! But you won't need to worry about that!"

"Don't get so cocky!"

They cross swords once again to try and ensnare each other.

"Kotonoha won't be mourning you for long after I've vanquished you," Sekai next taunted. "Because I'll be sending her into the afterworld to greet you after I pinch off that tube in her mouth for a long time."

In a sudden fit of rage, Makoto grabs Sekai, only to realize his mistake after receiving a powerful punch in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him and causing him to double over. That in turn causes him to drop his sword. Sekai effortlessly lifts him straight above her head as if he is only a rag doll and effortlessly hurls him across the room for some twenty feet, where he crashes loudly into a set of empty steel oil drums. He lies there overwhelmed with despair as he now knows that it is all over for him.

"Really now, Makoto," Sekai taunted as if disappointed as she saunters toward him with his sword in the other hand. "What were you thinking just then? Don't you already know by now that I can summon more strength than a bear, and you can't? You got that now, eh Makoto?"

He says nothing as he slowly sits back up to stare up at Sekai, especially at his sword.

Sekai looks at his sword for a moment. "Oh, you want this back?" Her tone mockingly empathetic. She next smirks and makes a brief single shake of her head. "Look at you, so helpless now. Just as you were back when I ended your mortality. Oh wait, that's right, you didn't really want to fight back. So does that mean you won't be fighting back again? Although," her tone now whimsical as she plants the tip of her blade against her chin in thought, "I'm thinking of giving you your sword back so that we may continue our battle. It just seems too easy for me to vanquish you, when I had always been able to best you back when I was still mortal. But if I do give you back your sword, there's always a chance that you might-"

She is interrupted by a flying oil drum, courtesy of Makoto. Between his natural and artificially-enhanced strength, he had been able to move quickly enough to grab that barrel that had been in front of him lying on its side and hurl it at her underhandedly with both hands while rising. Sekai instantly responds with a thrust kick. Between managing to have instantly max out her strength and the indestructibility of her skeleton, the barrel folds as if only made of cardboard. Unfortunately, this causes the barrel to wrap around her foot, trapping it.

Makoto had been anticipating that and moves as fast as he can while attempting to grab either sword. Sekai, having been caught off balance, is unable to react to him properly; yet she attempts to stab him with Irene's sword. Makoto is quick to grab that one and pull it out of her grip as he is quick to hurl himself backward. Upon doing so, he ends up pulling Sekai forward so that she regains her balance.

With an enraged shriek and her strength at full, Sekai ends up kicking the barrel with her free leg while wrenching her trapped one out. The blow is so powerful that the barrel rips into two complete pieces, effectively freeing her trapped foot. One piece goes flying straight at Makoto, hitting him in the hip with enough force to break a mortal's hip. The blow knocks him off balance for a moment, leaving him dangerously open.

But a now enraged Sekai misses that opportunity and instead picks up the other piece of the barrel and swings it at Makoto as if only a pillow, hitting him across the shoulder. Her movements so fast that he is unable to dodge or counter it and instead braces himself by turning side-on to it to absorb the impact into his shoulder. Makoto is knocked off his feet, yet is fortunate to keep a firm grip upon his sword.

"That really pissed me off, Makoto!" Sekai grated viciously with a monstrous expression as she lunges at him once again with the piece of barrel held high over her head. She might have encased it with an aura, since an immortal can wield more than one iron object in that manner, but has no interest in protecting it.

Again, she strikes him as he holds his arm up to block it. The same arm he had already used to absorb the previous blow. If he were still mortal that arm would have been an absolutely useless and shattered wreck by now; only now, that oil drum might as well be made of cardboard and his skeleton of diamond.

Once again Sekai strikes Makoto with the barrel; this time fully across the side of his face, knocking him to the other side as he is quick to roll with it. Although his thoughts are jarred, he does manage to keep a firm grip upon his sword. The blow, however, leaves a gash on his face that completely disappears roughly ten seconds later.

Makoto manages to roll into a crouch. Sekai stops for a moment to catch her breath. Her expression is maniacal.

"I don't know about you," she rasped with a tone to match her expression, "but I'm really enjoying myself right now."

"You do realize you're not even hurting me," Makoto said dryly with his eyes as dots and eyebrows prominent.

"It's the thought that counts," Sekai shrugged sarcastically. Then she winds up with her strength at its limits once again and brings the piece of barrel down upon him with all of her might. Makoto had been ready and swings with all of his enhanced strength, using the side of his blade like a batter hitting a ball, and hits the drum. If it were not for that aura, the blade would have snapped off. Yet not even the thinnest edge is so much as chipped on a molecular level. The unprotected drum would have been chopped through if struck with the edge, but Makoto knew beforehand that such a move might cause the blade to get stuck.

The counter blow causes Sekai to lose her grip upon the barrel and it crashes harmlessly to the cement floor. With Makoto now open to her, she thrusts out at him. Fortunately, he had been expecting such a maneuver and is quick to let go of the hilt in order to use his left arm to parry the blade aside as it temporarily opens a huge gash on his forearm.

Sekai is quick to grab his right wrist, but Makoto is quick to grab her elbow. Both are now locked in a struggle.

"Not again, Makoto!" Sekai gloated. "Do you know what's gonna happen now . . . ? This!"

With her strength maxed out, she pulls her sword-wielding arm free from his grip then winds up to stab him. But Makoto is quick to grab her into an embrace to trap her.

"Oh my, Makoto," Sekai drawled slyly into his face. "Is that a roll of yen in your pocket or are you really turned on this much?"

"You always did find humor in everything," he retorted in her face. "And yet you took our relationship much too seriously."

Sekai sneers and frees her sword arm once again with virtually no effort. Makoto immediately dives low while slipping underneath her arm to stand and pull, trying to break free of her iron grip, except it's much too strong for him to do so. This time, he shifts his weight in trying to spin her around and manages to do so, if only half-successfully.

"You may be able to make yourself far stronger than me," Makoto grimaced. "But you're still lighter than me and cannot make yourself any heavier!"

"Big deal, at least you can't escape my grip!"

"Oh no!?"

That is when Makoto dives once again into a spin, literally throwing his whole body into the effort as he twists his wrist around in her grip. This causes his skin underneath Sekai's grip to tear, resulting in his blood issuing forth to soak the area. That area becomes slicked and causes Sekai to loosen her grip so that Makoto is now able to pull his arm away while at the same time hurling himself away from Sekai. A ribbon of skin gets torn away, exposing bone, tendon, and muscle for a moment.

Sekai ends up letting go anyway to take a couple of seconds to wipe her bloodied hand on her pants. Although it will coagulate in the air to cause stickiness, thus giving her a better grip upon the hilt. She next lunges at Makoto while stabbing out at him. Makoto swings upward, deflecting the incoming strike, making it graze across his back to leave a temporary gash.

Just as his sword completes its upward arc, he next changes direction to place his sword into an awkward position at an upward diagonal with one hand clasping the pommel. He instantly stabs as he pushes, feeling first the tip then the rest of the blade go through Sekai's torso, all the way up to the cross-guard. Again, he feels that sensation of a tube getting jammed into him; just as he had felt when Irene had allowed him to stab her, freezing her.

For a couple of seconds, Makoto is bewildered over what he had just done. He has successfully frozen Sekai! She is now only eight seconds away from instantly unfreezing and Makoto pulls his blade out with both hands. He gets back up to line it up with her neck, now elongated slightly from her effort in trying to stab him. His heart is pounding like a drum as he rapidly winds up as if about to hit a baseball while enhancing his strength to the limit, focusing intently upon her neck.

But he hesitates. In spite of everything having gone so horribly wrong between them, they had been close friends one time. He remembers all of the good times they shared before their downfall. When he fell in love with her and they had sex. Their dance before the bonfire. To make it even worse, she is the reason why he and Kotonoha are together in the first place as she had stated so earlier!

Still, those memories also include her murdering him and her other murder attempt upon Kotonoha under the cover of that typhoon. Vanquishing Irene in what was simply an act of murder. And finally, kidnaping Kotonoha in order to lure him here to vanquish him.

Last but certainly not least is the undeniable fact that when Sekai recovers, they will continue their duel. Then she just might be the next one who gets to do the freezing. She will have the second opportunity to kill him once and for all, then carry out her promise to murder Kotonoha. And all without a shred of guilt nor shame.

With a shriek of outrage and desperation, he swings with every bit of effort he can squeeze out of himself while focusing intently upon her neck. He cuts through, but the blade gets stuck when it's virtually through her neck, being caught only upon a small piece of muscle and skin. With his adrenaline now spiked, Makoto put his whole body into savagely sawing the rest of the way as he screams with frustration.

As for Sekai, she is also screaming with rage and frustration, but on the inside. She cannot even so much as bat an eyelash, grunt, nor breath let alone twitch! So this is what it's like to be frozen. Never had she felt so helpless as she is feeling right now. It can't end this way! Not like this! Not at Makoto's hands! Her goal after vanquishing him will be to spend eternity hunting down other immortals to vanquish for their essence, regardless of how long they have lived. Because every little bit of this glorious essence counted and she can never have enough of it.

The blade finally exits the rest of her neck and her clothing simply drops to the floor, along with Makoto's sword and Makoto himself. He feels overwhelmed by both relief and what seems to be an ocean instantly filling him. In that instance, his thoughts become so much more focused and clearer. His memories sharper. So this is how Sekai had felt. And before her, Irene.

Makoto lies there for a moment, basking in both his victory and the immense amount of essence now within him. His afterglow fades and he gets up to look himself over. His clothing, especially his shirt, is bloodied and shredded. Even more so than the one he had been wearing when Sekai had first stabbed him to death, almost five years ago.

He next hurries toward Kotonoha, who had been watching the whole thing, choosing to remove her bonds first so that she can remove the tape herself or else he might irritate her skin by pulling it off too harshly. A long thin steel rod is all that binds her to the pipe as it had been wrapped around her waist, then wrapped back around her arms before being wrapped around the pipe. Enhancing his strength to its utmost limits, he now feels himself being so light that he thought he might end up floating away.

Makoto goes to work unwrapping the rod from around her as if it is only a pipe cleaner. Once freed, Kotonoha gingerly removes the tape and tube from her mouth.

"You did it," she sighed with relief.

"Yes I did," he cooed as he hugs her tightly then kisses her eagerly. "And everything is going to be okay."

Makoto kneels and picks up Irene's cellphone, hair, and the scabbard to her sword then returns to the spot of his victory.

"Sekai is truly gone now," Kotonoha said from alongside him while staring down at the pile of clothing.

"Unfortunately, so is Irene-sensei," Makoto added somberly as he is picking up Irene's sword and sheathes it. "Yet I feel as if she will suddenly walk in here and congratulate me."

"That's because there's no corpse for you to look at and touch," Kotonoha answered.

Makoto next sheathes his sword back into his scabbard within his coat then pockets Irene's cellphone and lock of hair into his own coat pockets too. Next, he starts searching through Sekai's clothes, finding that dozuki within her coat but doesn't keep it. He bundles up Sekai's clothing together in her coat to hand to Kotonoha, so that he can wrap Irene's sword up in that blanket.

"Come on," he said softly as he tucks the bundled sword underneath his arm before touching Kotonoha, "let's get you home before your parents notice that you're gone."

Outside, it is still nighttime with the sky clear as what stars that can be seen show that the sky is clear. On the way back, they encounter a trash bin and Makoto instructs Kotonoha to ditch Sekai's clothing into it, and she does.

They make it back to her place and are now staring up at the wall.

"Sekai enhanced her strength and jumped over the wall with me," Kotonoha said.

"Then so will I," Makoto said as he put his package down to pick Kotonoha up in his arms. He increases his strength to maximum and Kotonoha suddenly begins to feel ever lighter to him until she feels no heavier than a pillow. Taking a deep breath, he slowly squats and tightens his lips. With one firm leap, he is airborne and clears the top of the wall then lands upon the grass on the other side, almost stumbling in the process.

"That was a lot more fun with you than with Sekai," Kotonoha giggled.

Makoto shushes her as he put her down. "Will you be okay from here on?"

"Yes I will be. Oh, and Makoto?"

"Yes?"

She kisses him tenderly and deeply before breaking away slowly.

"That was for rescuing me."

"See you tomorrow then," Makoto whispered as he slowly turns away while maxing out his strength. Again, he practically flies over the wall to land on the other side as Kotonoha watches. She then turns to go inside and quietly makes her way back to her room, where she gets into her bed. Yet she is unable to fall asleep after all of the danger and excitement that had happened.

Makoto ambles back home with the package tucked underneath his arm. He reflects on everything that had happened within this day and night. He also thinks of what Sekai had said to him. That the day will come when Kotonoha dies. This is something that he must come to terms with and talk to Kotonoha about. With his intelligence now enhanced to the point that his thoughts come to him so much more easily, this might not be a problem. That and this intuition that Sekai spoke of before their epic battle might help him too.

By the time he reaches his apartment, dawn now graces the horizon. He wanted to get some sleep, but not before he disposes of Irene's cellphone and lock of hair. The hair he places into a pan and takes a propane lighter stick to it. He almost doesn't want to do it as it is the only anatomical presence of Irene that is left. Clothing and possessions certainly don't count. Steeling his resolve, he lights it and every strand burns away in a flash. He next removes the batteries from her cellphone, then crushes the cellphone before throwing it into a recycling bin.

Makoto finally turns in for the rest of the night to get some sleep. He has little problem falling asleep because of that battle having been an exhausting one.

Later that morning Makoto and Kotonoha are at the apartment complex where Irene had lived.

"Is it possible for you to check up on our former teacher, Irene Lamane, for us?" Makoto asked the manager. "She was supposed to give us a call last night, but she didn't."

"Oh, she must be out with her sister," the landlord said dismissively. He is now wearing new glasses.

Makoto and Kotonoha glance at one another.

"Irene-sensei once told us that she has no living relatives left," Kotonoha said.

"If we are mistaken," Makoto interjected, "then it'll be us who'll look bad instead of you."

The manager agrees and goes to unlock her apartment door, but discovers it already unlocked to begin with. Makoto and Kotonoha both feel annoyed over just automatically assuming that the door will be locked.

Inside, they find Irene's clothing on the floor in front of an open closet, along with a knife embedded in her shirt.

"I think we better leave and call the police," the landlord said.

They do so and the police arrive to check out the scene. But despite the empty clothing and the knife, they find no proof of foul play and the case is closed very quickly.

Afterwards, Makoto and Kotonoha take a walk along the beach.

"The world will never know what happened to Irene-sensei," Makoto said.

"Nor will the world ever know who pretended to be her sister either," Kotonoha added.

"Let's talk about us now," Makoto said. "Let's talk about our future together. Sekai was right about one thing: you will die at some point in your life and I will continue living on forever and ever, or at least until I'm vanquished by another immortal."

"We can still be together for that time," Kotonoha said.

"I know, and I really want us to," Makoto said in a soft intended manner. "But people will eventually mistake us for mother and son, then grandmother and grandson, and finally great-grandmother and great grandson. Then there is also the fact that I cannot have children."

"Do want to become a father?"

"I-I don't know. We can adopt or even a sperm donor can be used, but then I will have to share my secret with those children. Also, it's not the same because the child's existence is due to another man."

"Then . . . do you wish to end everything between us, Makoto-kun?"

Makoto is silent for a moment while staring at Kotonoha, then cradles her face with one hand.

"I've made up my mind to be with you for the rest of your life," he said tenderly. "Last night, I came too close to losing you. Even though the time will come when you will pass away and I will have to live for eternity without you, at least you will be with me for eternity in my memories. They will only grow sharper as I accumulate more essence, even without needing to vanquish other immortals. I love you, Kotonoha."

"And I love you, Makoto-kun."

They kiss.


	15. Epilogue

Makoto gently leans upon his cane, which is actually a sword in disguise, as he continues staring out at the horizon over the Sea of Japan. The sun had set several minutes ago. It is now over one hundred years since his victory over Sekai. Though time cannot touch his biology, his eyes now bear the look of someone who has seen and experienced far too much for someone seemingly so young. Despite there being perpetually thirteen other immortals out there, he has yet to meet another.

He reflects some more upon his life with Kotonoha.

They graduated from Tokyo University with their Doctorates, then got married and settled into life. It is throughout the course of their life together that Kotonoha studied his DNA. She ended up coming to the conclusion that there is truly not a single biological reason for his immortality; even going as far as to speculate that even if a clone of him were ever made, it would have actually ended up being mortal.

Yet the study of his DNA did enable Kotonoha to defeat one of the contributors to the aging process: ironically, it is the immune system. As the immune system attacks pathogens, it creates inflammations. Those inflammations end up damaging cells. The more inflammations a person gets over their lifetime, the more cellular damage they accumulate. This has to do with the fact that humans do not regenerate many of their cells.

Kotonoha managed to put a stop to all that by changing the very nature of the immune system. Instead of causing inflammations, it now traps the pathogens and carries them out of the body. She had also accidentally found a way to get the body to produce an abundance of both powerful antioxidants and resveratrol, a trace substance found in grapes and wine that has been shown to slow the aging of the heart and muscle tissue. That accident was actually Makoto's intuition coming into play when he had made a suggestion about certain DNA.

She ended up patenting the first semi-anti-aging serum that permanently changes a human's DNA to produce these desired results. She took it herself and even into her mid-sixties, she easily got mistaken for being in her mid-thirties. That gap between her chronological and biological age only growing ever wider over the passing years. That serum went on to become number one in the list of the top ten greatest inventions in the world, with millions of people taking it in any given year. The effects of that serum proved to be inheritable too.

Makoto could also hide his immortality behind it as well, since Kotonoha ended up becoming a very important person for her achievement.

His reflections are suddenly interrupted by one of those clouds taking on the form of a familiar woman from his past. Irene Lamane, the immortal Western beauty who had guided him through his immortality and taught him his sword skills under the guise of a fencing club. Even to this day, he still has both her sword and the sword she gave him, keeping them as heirlooms over his mantle piece. He still misses her, if only as a mentor and a friend.

The image changes into another woman, with long hair flowing to one side as a warm smile graces her face while seemingly waving back at him.

"Kotonoha," Makoto whispered tenderly as tears grace his eyes and end up running down his face. He next reaches into his jacket pocket to remove a small white vase with a swan neck and fat bottom. It is stopped with a cork, and within it are Kotonoha's ashes.

_Kanashimi no mukou e to tadoritsukeru nara_

_Boku wa mou iranai yo nukumori mo ashita mo_

She died last week at the age of one hundred and twenty-five years (though biologically, only a third of that age). Her death was sudden, yet peaceful because she died in her sleep. They had been married for one hundred years, and he remained faithful.

_Seijaku no yami ni maiorita yume wa_

_Who . . . ? Tsuka no ma koboreta hoho no hikari_

_Why . . . ? Morosugita sekai todomeru sube o shirazu ni_

_Tada boku wa negatteta sou boukyaku o_

_Kanashimi no mukou e to tadoritsukeru nara_

_Boku wa mou kore ijou nani mo kanjinakute ii_

The breeze has since stopped, making the air now perfectly still. Makoto takes this opportunity to scatter her ashes, instead of just hurling the vase out over the sea as far as he can throw from his strength being augmented to its limit. At the very edge of the shoreline he tucks his cane underneath his arm for a moment to remove the stopper, which comes off with a pop. He next carefully winds up, enhancing his strength to its limit anyway, and makes a short sharp swing. Kotonoha's ashes come flying out, scattering further than what they would have scattered through normal strength.

Makoto puts the cork back into the vase and pockets it. The cloud has since lost its shape and is just another cloud now. He continues to stand there watching as most of her ashes had immediately hit the water to sink just as quickly; while the rest just gently fall to float upon the surface. His tears continue streaming down his face.

_Why . . . ? Kurikaesu kotoba tsuieta yakusoku wa_

_Hitokiwa utsukushiku hibiki ima togireta_

_Zetsubou no mukou e to kimi wa kaeru no ka_

_Shiyou no ai yuukyuu no ho ni kegarenaki mi o yudane_

_Kanashimi no mukou e to tadoritsukeru nara_

_Boku wa mou osorenai kodoku na nemuri sae_

"Goodbye, my love," he next quavers. "I will miss you for eternity."

Makoto wipes his eyes and is about to turn away, only to notice something out toward the horizon that compels him to enhance his vision. He can now see that it is a yacht, just like the one that Kotonoha's family once owned back during his high school days.

"Nice boat," he quipped.


End file.
